


All Those Pretty Lights

by ALittleLampPost



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Cute, F/F, Fluff, Romance, Wayhaught - Freeform, wynonna earp - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-07 08:28:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7707982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ALittleLampPost/pseuds/ALittleLampPost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regular life in the small town of Purgatory, no revenants, no BBD, no dead Shorty, and certainly no Champ/Waverly relationship (that boy-man gots to go). Just a little bit of wayhaught!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Someone new

‘Purgatory. Population: 3021’, _now if that doesn’t sound like a sad number what does?_ Nicole thinks to herself as she drives over the town limit. Lincoln, her cat in the seat next to her meows, and she reaches over to pet him while saying “I know baby, I know. We’re almost there.”

After having driven around 3 hours, Nicole finally reaches her destination - an old, but charming, apartment building. After a long line of in-between jobs consisting mostly of waiting tables and cleaning hotel rooms, she finally got the job she’s always wanted, and she is now officially a police officer with the Purgatory Police Department.

As she parks and gets out of the car, she picks up a box and the keys to her new home and makes for the stairs. She reaches door number 6 and as she’s putting her keys in the door she feels more nervous than she thought she would. She turns the key and pushes the door open before walking in.

Looking around her new home, slowly and cautiously walking inside, she says “so this is it! What do you think, Lincoln?” He purrs and she hums in agreement “Yeah… It’s not the most fancy of places, but it’s all we can afford at the moment. Besides, it’s got potential, and potential we can work with.” With a secure smile now on her face, she walks back down to her car to bring in the rest of the boxes before heading off to find a coffee shop, _I could kill for a cup of coffee right about now, I have not been this tired in what feels like years._

\----------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Waverly Earp is sitting on her bed with several books open around her, all about runes – the current dead language she’s trying hard to learn all there is to learn about. Previous dead languages include Latin, Sanskrit and ancient Greek. As she finishes writing something up, she stretches and realises she’s not had her morning coffee yet, and decides to pack up and bring her books to the local coffee shop.

\----------------------------------------------

As Waverly enters the coffee shop, she is determined not to make a fool of herself for once with her clumsiness. An idea long gone before its even set in motions as her eyes falls on one certain redhead sitting silently in a corner booth alone with a book. _She looks so peaceful… There is so much chaos going on around her but it’s like she’s not even phased by it, how?_

Just in that moment, Nicole looks up from her book and her eyes meets Waverly’s. She’s sure the world around her is still in motion, but her own just came to a full stop at the sight of one Waverly Earp. She means to smile but in the middle of staring at this beautiful creature, she’s not entirely sure if that’s what she’s actually doing.

The sight of Nicole’s smile brings a light redness to Waverly’s cheeks, and she quickly looks down, proceeding to make her way to the counter. In doing so, her desperate tries to be anything but her old clumsy self are more or less non-existent as she managed to run into two people and a table by the time she reaches the counter. In that very moment she also manages to see that everyone is looking at her with the most worrisome looks, with the exception of the same redhead as before who’s just looking at her – still smiling.

As she picks up her coffee, Waverly makes a rash decision to take a seat next to the redhead, in hopes of maybe getting to talk to her, although based on her performance just now, her chances with this beautiful girl may just have disappeared. _Stupid clumsy me, managing to mess everything up before its even begun! Typical…_ After placing her coffee down, she swings her bag of her shoulder in what was apparently a too fast motion as all of her books ended up on the floor faster than she could even try to stop it from happening.

“Oh my gosh, here, let me help you with those!”

Waverly freezes at the sound of Nicole’s voice, completely unprepared for any type of conversation happening between them before she had the chance to plan every detail and think of every possible scenario for it. Luckily, while her vocal chords might be on vacation at the moment, her nervous system is not. She bends down and starts picking up loose papers and notebooks and textbooks that are now lying all around her, cursing herself for not closing her bag properly – a thing that could’ve prevented all this from happening in the first place.

When they’ve picked up everything that ended on the floor, they both stand back up and Nicole sets the books on the table before extending an arm, “I’m Nicole. Nicole Haught.”  

Waverly tries to speak up but ends having to clear her throat before her vocal chords finally gets with the program, “Waverly! Waverly Earp.” She takes Nicoles hand and shakes it, holding on to it for what would to anyone else be a little bit too long. “Oh, and thank you so much for the help with the books! I am such a klutz, I’m sorry, I don’t even know how I do it…”

Nicole lets out a small laugh, “don’t worry about it, I’m glad I could help! We all have those days, it happens to the best of us.”

“Yeah, there are just a few of us who have 'those days' every day…”

“I see… Well, as an officer of the law, I feel inclined to protect all citizens in need of assistance. So, Waverly Earp, would you like to join me?” Nicole gestured to the booth, feeling silly as she did so, knowing Waverly could see exactly where she was sitting a moment ago.

Waverly felt that blush creeping up on her again and quickly ducked her head down while smiling, “yes. I would love to.”

\----------------------------------------------

“So,” Waverly started, “you’re a cop?”

Nicole smiled, “yes, I actually just moved here! Today… I actually abandoned my apartment mid-unpacking to grab a cup of coffee. But what about you, what do you do? I see you’re studying some runes..?”

Waverly seems to light up at the mention of her textbooks, as she immediately starts rambling, “yes! Well not studying formally, it’s more of a hobby to me actually – and I know that that’s a little bit weird maybe but I actually really enjoy it! I like a lot of extinct languages, I’ve studied some of them and I can’t wait to study more of them! I don’t really know why I do it, I guess it’s because when I was little my dad would tell me stories and myths and I was always so fascinated by the stories and I later thought if I learned the languages and the stories behind them I would better understand those stories and find out if any of them were actually true – which I have to say not many of them are and it’s quite sad now that I think about it… But it could also be because I want to feel closer to my dad, he passed away when I was quite little, him and my oldest sister – Willa – and so I don’t know if I’m just learning all this stuff because I miss someone I never even really knew or what. I just find it really interesting… But actually I work at a bar, the one across the street – Shorty’s? I don’t know if you’ve seen it, I mean on your way here… Because this is your first day here, right.” Finally stopping to take a deep breath, she continued much slower and calmer, “I’m sorry. I was rambling wasn’t I? I just get really excited when someone wants to talk to me about languages. Not that you wanted that!” Sighing, she lastly added “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m like this…”

Nicole, whose smile hadn’t faltered even a little bit during Waverly’s rant, was in awe of this sweet little creature in front of her. She lightly shook her head and said, “no, that’s- no, I like it. The rambling I mean, it’s cute. Plus, I’m interested in you – in your life! In your work. I am interested in your work.” Having to let out a sigh herself, Nicole cautiously continues, “I’m sorry, it’s not every day I get to sit and talk with a beautiful girl. Looks like I’m doing a bit of rambling myself…” Suddenly not feeling like her normal calm and collected self, Nicole took a long sip of coffee, hoping Waverly would jump in and save her from further embarrassment.

“Thank you. You’re not so bad yourself, if you don’t mind me saying!”

Nicole’s eyes find Waverly’s again and she can’t help but grin as she says, “no, not at all. Thank you.”

After a moment of silence, Nicole speaks up again, “So you said you work at a bar…? I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch the name.”

“Oh, Shorty’s! It’s just across the street. I’m uh, I’m a barmaid there… Have been for the last 2 years now that I think of it. Not a very prestigious or good job, I know, but it pays the bills, allows me to keep up my language studies, and it’s comfortable,” Waverly added a shy smile at the end, hoping to convince Nicole she’s not a complete loser who never got past their temporary job.

“Oh, I know, I was a waiter for a good three years… I mean it’s not the same, but I think I know a little bit of what it’s like, and as long as you’re happy what’s the problem, right?”

Waverly smiled and sighed, “yeah… Exactly.”

\----------------------------------------------

With them both being completely oblivious to the time, they were shocked when one of the baristas came over at the end of the day to inform then it was ten to six and they were about to close.

Waverly was quick to apologise once again, “I’m so sorry, I’ve kept you so late!”

Nicole was quick, however, to dismiss her apology, reaching across the table for her hands while saying, “no, you haven’t. I’ve been free to leave any time I wanted, I would just not want be anywhere but here with you right now.”

Waverly was looking at Nicole with the utmost admiration, she’d never met anyone so bold, and so forward before and she couldn’t help but feel so special because of it.

Nicole, seeing the way Waverly was seemingly studying her, laughed and spoke up, “what, is there something on my face?”

Waverly quickly recovered, shaking her head no, “no, I’ve just never met anyone like you.”

Questioningly Nicole answered, “all in a good way I hope?”

“God, yes! Yes, sorry, yes. The best way.” Was said with a smile.

“So,” Nicole started as they walked out of the coffee shop, “when will I be seeing you again?”

“How about Friday?”

“Friday,” Nicole repeated, “it’s a date.”

A moment went by before Nicole realised what she’d just said, and she tried to quickly change that, afraid to scare Waverly off. “I mean, not a date-date of course… Unless you want it to be? In which case I definitely want it to be. If not, it’s not that, it’s just friends having dinner! If that was even something you were thinking? I don’t-“

“Woah, Nicole! Slow down there,” Waverly chuckled, “we’ll have dinner, I’ll cook.”

Nicole just nodded, thinking she might do better with less talking right now, so Waverly jumped back in.

“Great! It’s a date.” She quickly kissed Nicole’s cheek before walking off, leaving a very flustered Nicole behind.


	2. Romeo and Juliet

After having driven home, as Nicole was sat watching TV, it suddenly dawned on her – she never asked Waverly for her phone number. Or her address… _So stupid, you’re supposed to go on a date with this gorgeous girl and you don’t even know where. Great job, officer…_ Luckily Waverly did tell her where she worked, so she could always just go down to Shorty’s and see if she was there. But not wanting to come off too strong or seeming desperate, she decided it was best to leave it for tomorrow.

\----------------------------------------------

The next morning as Waverly was cleaning up at Shorty’s and readying the bar for another night, she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, realising she never gave Nicole her address. _Shoot. Now how is she going to be able to show up for our date? Ugh I’m so stu-_

“Now that’s a face of deep concentration right there!” Nicole said as she walked in, interrupting Waverly mid-thought.

As Waverly turned around to face her, she had to take a moment to remember to breathe as she saw Nicole in her uniform for the first time. _Damn, I got it bad and I don’t even know this girl._

After not-so-discreetly having taken a moment to fully compose herself again, she flashed a smile and spoke up, “good morning officer, what can I do you for?”

Giving off that signature smile of hers, Nicole answered “a good morning indeed”, as she took a seat at one of the bar stools. “Also, you can sell me a cup of coffee…?”

“Sure,” Waverly smiled, “that I can do.”

After a moment of comfortable silence, Nicole admiring Waverly from a distance, Waverly spoke up again as she finished Nicole’s cappuccino, “first day today, huh?”

Looking down at her outfit, Nicole laughed and said, “yeah, how’d you guess?”

“Oh, you know, it had nothing at all to do with the uniform, no I’m just a psychic – shhh!” Waverly said, bringing forth a laugh from Nicole, a sound Waverly was sure she could definitely get used to being around.

“Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me,” was said with a wink.

“Well,” Waverly said changing the subject, “that’s one cappuccino ready to go.” As Nicole started searching her pockets for a couple of bucks, Waverly jumped in before she got a chance to actually hand it over, “oh, no no, don’t worry. This one’s on me.”

“Why thank you, I owe you one.”

“You can get the next one. And really it’s my pleasure, my way of saying good luck with your first day and all.”

“Speaking of next times, I realise I am an idiot, but I never asked you for your phone number yesterday, did I?”

Feeling super relieved that she didn’t have to admit her own mistake in this, and of course deciding to take this opportunity to pretend she had it all under control, she simply smiled and answered, “huh, so it seems! There is also the matter of my address, that might come in handy for Friday if you’re actually gonna have any chance of finding my house…”

Nicole digged in her pocket for a moment before fishing her phone out and handing it over to Waverly, “do you mind…?”

Reaching for Nicole’s phone and taking it, their hands touched for only a second, but it was enough to send jolts of electricity running through the both of them. A little bit taken aback by this feeling, and feeling the redness reach her cheeks, Nicole quickly picked up the cup of coffee to take a sip.

Barely registering that Nicole had picked the cup up, ready to take a sip, she barely managed to get out a, “no, wait! That’s actually probably really h-“

“Ouch, Christ!” was heard as a harsh whisper coming from Nicole, and Waverly felt bad already that she had forgotten to mention that the drink was probably way too hot to drink yet.

“Hot… I’m so sorry, I completely forgot to tell you, it’s just this stupid machine I’ve been having some trouble with lately, I forgot to mention it would be superhot… I’m s-“

“Hey, don’t you dare apologise to me again.”

“Sorry..” Waverly said before quickly realising she just did it again as she saw Nicole’s face make out a smirk, “I just did it again, didn’t I?”

“Afraid so…”

“I really don’t mean to, it’s just a reflex… And I really am sorry I forgot to warn you about the coffee.”

“Don’t even worry about it, I should’ve known and I could’ve asked.” Was answered with a smile.

Handing Nicole’s phone back, Waverly said “here, my number and my address. I expect you to text me now, you know.”

“I’ll do you one better, I’ll call you.”

Waverly could only smile. Nicole was so bold and brave compared to the guys she’d previously dated. And while it was frightening, it was also very exhilarating to not have to go through the classic cat-mouse thing all couples usually do. It was nice to know she was admired. The comments and replies from Nicole, though at times very direct, were a much welcomed change from the passive laid back attitude most previous guys had given her. Not able to think of something to say, she never did get to say anything before Nicole spoke up again, “hey, I’m sorry, but I have to go… I don’t want to be late on my first day, don’t think the Chief would be too happy with that! Thanks again, for the coffee. I will probably need it… And I’ll call you later!”

Watching Nicole walk out of the bar, she could only stare after her, thinking to herself _that woman will be the death of me._

\----------------------------------------------

The week quickly made its way to Thursday, and when Waverly still hadn’t heard anything from Nicole she was starting to get worried. She’d spent the week silently hoping for Nicole to call her, and by Wednesday she would’ve even been grateful for a simple text. And as she didn’t have Nicole’s number because she’d been too awestruck to actually remember and ask for it, she had no way of contacting Nicole.

Luckily, Thursday night was the night. As the night was coming to an end and it was nearing 11:30pm, Waverly’s phone went off.

“Hello?”

“Waverly?”

“Nicole! Ehem, I mean, Nicole, hey, how are you?” Waverly was silently cursing herself for not being able to contain her excitement.

“Waverly, I am so sorry I’ve not called you earlier this week. I didn’t expect my first week to be easy but boy, I did not expect it to be this hard either… Not that that’s an excuse not to call you, I should have called you days ago, I am so sorry.”

“Hey, it’s okay, I understand. I mean, I would’ve liked you to call me before now, but I’ll take it.”

The line went quiet for a while when neither of them spoke. It was Nicole who after a moment decided to break the silence by asking, “well, how are you? I’ve been dying to ask that for three days now…”

Suddenly smiling like an idiot, Waverly thought to herself before answering _she’s not even here and she can make me look like this…_ “I’m good, better now that I’m talking to you though. That was really cliché, wasn’t it? God, I’m just an extra cheese pizza, aren’t I?”

Laughing, Nicole said, “yeah, yeah you definitely are right now. But it’s okay, it is definitely adorable and I like cheesy – heck my favourite movie used to be Romeo and Juliet… Yes, _the_ Romeo and Juliet, the biggest tragedy of all time. And just like that I’ve embarrassed myself completely, haven’t I?”

“A little bit, yes…” Was said as the line was filled with laughter when they both fell into fits of giggles.

Once they’d managed to calm down, Waverly spoke up, “no, but seriously, my day just got a whole lot better thanks to you.” Thinking for a moment more, she decided to be bold like Nicole, “I’m really excited about tomorrow night…”

A little taken aback by the directness of this, Nicole could only answer, “yeah, me too.”

“Oh, you don’t have food allergies, do you?”

“Nope! No allergies. Can I bring anything?”

Taking a moment to think about this and consider the options, she finally said, “nope, just your own fine self is good!”

Nicole nodded to herself for a moment before realising Waverly couldn’t actually see that. She cursed herself and said “okay, let me know if there’s anything you think of between now and then.”

Flattered, Waverly answered “thank you, I will.”

“Now, I’m really sorry, but I feel like I could fall asleep any second, so I better hang up before I just fall flat on my face not even making it to my bed. I just wanted to hear your voice before tomorrow, but I can’t wait to see you.”

Looking at the time seeing it was past midnight, Waverly hurried to answer, “Oh, I didn’t realise it was so late, I’m sorry!”

Yawning, Nicole tiredly said “Waves, honestly. We talked about this… Besides, it’s me who should apologise for the lateness. And not calling sooner. Or texting…” Another yawn made its way through Nicole before she managed to let out a sleepy “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it, I forgave you half an hour ago. Go to bed, I will see you tomorrow night.”

Flopping down on her bed with her phone to her ear, Nicole closed her eyes and said what sounded like a “goodnight Waverly Earp.”

To which Waverly replied “Goodnight Officer Haught,” before she hung up and went to bed herself.

\----------------------------------------------

The night of their date was finally here, and Nicole was more nervous than ever before. _Get it together, Haught, this is not the most stressful moment of your life, you’ve been through worse. Have I though? It’s only the most beautiful person I have ever met, not a big deal at all… Or major deal, HUGE deal actually. Oh my God…_

Standing in the mirror she was looking at her chosen outfit. She’d texted Waverly earlier asking if she should dress casual or dressed up, and had gotten the reply to dress casually, so that’s exactly what she did. She was dressed in dark blue jeans with a red and white baseball shirt on, now trying to decide on her hair. _Up? Or down…? Up, down, up, down? Up? No, down. I have my hair up all the time for work, so not that. Down, definitely down._

\----------------------------------------------

On the other side of town, Waverly was facing a slightly different problem. She’d decided on an outfit hours ago, after raiding through her closet a couple of times (or seven) – a pair of jeans and a simple blouse. No, this problem was much bigger, she could not for the life of her, decide on what she wanted to cook for Nicole. She decided a couple of dishes, and even considered ordering in a couple of times, but in the end she always came back to wanting to impress Nicole with the few things she knew how to do – cooking being one of those few things.

After looking for the perfect first date dish, she ended on one of the old family recipes, something she was sure couldn’t go wrong. Or so she hoped…

\----------------------------------------------

Time went by way too quickly for Waverly after she started working on dinner, and when she heard three perfectly timed knocks on her door, she was sure it wasn’t seven yet, but looking at the clock – sure enough it was 6:58pm.

As she walked towards the door she could feel her nerves growing by the minute, become more and more overwhelming. Her emotional range at that very moment was all over the place - feeling anything from fear to joy to excitement to worry. She did not want to mess this up, not so soon.

Little did she know, on the other side of the door she was about to open, was a very nervous slightly clammy Nicole. She’d not been able to get this exact moment and every possible scenario of this entire night out of her head the entire day. She’d not been able to focus on any work while down at the precinct, with nothing but Waverly occupying her mind. Now that she was actually here, outside her door, Nicole couldn’t help the ever growing butterflies in her stomach, completely taking over every other emotion she might be feeling.

Opening the door, Waverly’s jaw dropped at the sight of Nicole out of her uniform with her hair down. Yes, she’d seen her before without her incredibly sexy cop uniform on, but not like this. Last time at the café she was more uptight, the Nicole standing in front of her now seemed entirely different and so comfortable – nervous, of course, but still comfortable and confident, and Waverly thought she looks amazing.

A nervous smile playing on her lips and a hint of redness coloring her cheeks as she stood patiently waiting for Waverly to meet her eyes again, Nicole herself couldn’t help but do a double take herself of the girl standing in front of her. Waverly was looking at gorgeous as ever, wearing simple and comfortable, yet elegant clothes, she looked stunning to Nicole.

“Wow. I mean, you look so… Wow.” Waverly was mentally slapping herself, telling herself to snap out of it and behave like a normal person for two seconds. _Get it together, this is not the time to make a fool of yourself._

“Thanks… I think. You look beautiful as always,” Nicole said, “oh and I hope you don’t mind, but I did take the liberty of bringing a couple movies to choose from? I’m a bit of a film fanatic…”

“No, not at all, that’s perfect, movies are great. Please, come on in! I’m just finishing up dinner now.”

Walking inside, the room smelled of mixed spices and herbs, a very pleasant smell for a hungry officer. “Oh my God it smells so good in here, I am starving.”

“Good, I’m glad! Hopefully it will taste just about as good as it smells if I didn’t mess anything up.”

“I’m sure if tastes even half as good as it smells it will be absolutely amazing. This is great, Waverly.”

Placing a few DVD’s on the coffee table, Nicole proceeded to follow Waverly into the kitchen, where a delicious-looking pot roast was just being taken out of the oven by Waverly, “that looks amazing. Remind me not to cook for you…”

Laughing, Waverly replied “oh I’m sure it’s not that bad! But thank you. Now let’s eat!”

\----------------------------------------------

They were in the middle of watching Romeo and Juliet, that after surprisingly little convincing, Waverly had agreed to watch after seeing Nicole’s puppy dog face, when Nicole realised she’d stopped watching the movie. About halfway through, Nicole stopped watching the movie and instead focused on Waverly, actually Waverly was all she could think about for the second half of the movie. And as much as that scared her, it was also a good feeling – Waverly was good.

They’d also ended up sitting what could to some be considered a little too close for comfort as they watched the movie, but neither of them felt the need to move, speak up or do anything else. They were simply comfortable with each other, in silence, watching a beautiful tragedy.

\----------------------------------------------

When the night came to an end and Nicole was headed home, as she stood in the doorway Waverly said “I had a really good time tonight. I was hoping maybe we could do this again..?”

Smiling, Nicole kissed her cheek and said “definitely. ‘Til then, Waves!”

And just as Nicole was walking over to her car, Waverly was smiling to herself and shaking her head lightly before yelling after her, “you better call me tomorrow!”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Nicole said as she flashed Waverly one last smile and got into her car heading home.

Not able to stop the smile creeping up on her face as she drove away, Nicole thought to herself, _she is going to be the death of me._


	3. You're my Favourite Person

It was early Saturday morning when Waverly abruptly woke and sat up when she heard her phone ringing. She tried to desperately blink the sleep out of her eyes so that she could locate her phone, but to no avail. She therefore started reaching blindly for her nightstand where her phone would be, and luckily, before it went to voicemail, she managed to pick it up.

“Hello..?” Was said as Waverly huffed rather loudly and flopped back down on her back.

“Shit, I’m sorry, did I wake you?”

Waverly stayed silent for a moment before realising who she was talking to, “Nicole?”

“Yes! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you…”

Waverly shot back up and was now sitting in her bed, back against the headboard, more awake than ever. “Don’t be silly, I’m glad you did,” was said smiling.

A moment of silence passed before Nicole said, “okay, so I was thinking of making some breakfast, and then I was thinking of the incredible meal you cooked for us last night, which leads me to: would you care for some breakfast? It won’t be as amazing as your dinner, but I will do my best to at least make it edible!”

Waverly couldn’t stop smiling at Nicole’s gesture, and she kept wondering how she could be so lucky as to have met her. “Actually, that sounds perfect. I can be over at yours in... Well, I’m not entirely sure, I’m not sure I even know where you live now that I think about it,” was said with an awkward laugh.

Hurrying to save Waverly from further embarrassment, Nicole came to the rescue, “nono, I woke you up, I can bring everything over - I don’t mind. Just give me thirty minutes, is that okay?”

Yet again charmed by Nicole’s action, Waverly nodded and happily answered, “that’s- yeah, that’s great. I will see you in a bit!”

“Great, see yah!”

\----------------------------------------------

As soon as Nicole hung up she started cooking up what would hopefully be a decent breakfast for the two of them to enjoy. Nicole wasn’t much of a cook, but she did really wish to impress Waverly – at least a little bit.

\----------------------------------------------

Waverly had hung up and resisted the urge to go back to sleep, instead dragging herself out of bed and downstairs to the living room. She turned on the TV to see if anything new and uneventful had happened in Purgatory over the night, while laying down on the couch figuring getting dressed would take too much effort and she couldn’t be bothered.

A few minutes after she’d gone downstairs she received a text from Nicole,

Nicole: Hey, you’re not allergic to anything, right?

Smiling and shaking her head she typed out her reply,

Waverly: Nope! I’ll eat pretty much anything.

\----------------------------------------------

As soon as Nicole received the text from Waverly she nodded once to herself, looking over what she’d cooked up, before seeing Lincoln walk in to the kitchen, “morning buddy!” She said as she picked the cat up and held him like a baby, petting his belly, “sorry little man, but I’ve got to go again… I’ve got a breakfast to deliver and share with a wonderful person who, by the way, I’m pretty sure you’ll fall for just as much as I have.” She kissed the top of his head and sat him back down on the floor before picking everything up and getting in her car, starting the drive over to the homestead.

\----------------------------------------------

Waverly rushed to the door as she heard someone knock, and as she pulled the door open she was met with a grinning Nicole holding a basket with food.

A smile quickly found its way to Waverly’s face as she sighed happily and said, “you are so amazing. I mean seriously, this is amazing!” She gestured for Nicole to come in, “first I get woken up by the most beautiful voice telling me breakfast will be at my door in 30 minutes,” Nicole raised her eyebrows then, “then 30 minutes later – bam! Here you are, at my door, with a beautiful smile and a basket full of food!” Waverly stopped for a second to breathe before continuing, “I mean really, what more could a girl ask for?”

Nicole laughed and said, “well, nothing I suppose. Though I have to warn you, I’ve been told I’m not a great cook! Meaning every time I do actually cook, there’s about a 50/50 percent chance the food will actually end up being edible…” She shrugged her shoulders and gave a sheepish grin while handing Waverly the basket she was reaching for.

“I’m sure it’s not that bad,” Waverly said as she started setting the table and unpacking the food in the basket. There was French toast, berries, chocolate chip pancakes, syrup, coffee, orange juice… Nicole had really gone all out on this one. Turning to face Nicole again, Waverly said, “I mean it all looks insanely good… And I’m really hungry so I’d eat just about anything – especially if you made it for me.”

Nicole was flattered, and decided to seize the moment – carpe diem and all! So she walked up to Waverly, reached for everything she was currently holding to set it on the table. She reached for a piece of hair that had escaped Waverly’s messy bun and tucked it behind her ear, “I don’t know what you’re doing to me, Waverly Earp, but I cannot stop thinking about you. When I left last night, all I wanted to do was be with you…” She gently caressed Waverly’s cheek, “God, you are so beautiful.”

Before Nicole could say anything else, it was Waverly who all but leapt forward, connecting their lips for the first time in a soft kiss. Nicole responded immediately, wounding her arms around Waverly’s waist as Waverly wound hers around Nicole’s neck. It was a kiss so full of emotions they were both struggling to keep on their feet, almost paralysed by the feeling.

When they finally broke apart moments later and out of breath, they looked at each other for a moment before Waverly let her forehead fall against Nicole’s. She closed her eyes, re-imagining the kiss they just shared, smiling at the memory. When she opened her eyes again, she quickly found Nicole’s looking at her, that deadly smile firmly plastered on her face. “I can’t believe I actually convinced myself not to do that last night…” Nicole let out a laugh, and Waverly continued, “I mean just… Woah.”

Nicole pecked Waverly’s lips one more time before letting go and saying, “I know,” getting back to setting the table and making last minute preparations to the food.

Waverly was still stood firmly in place, blinking a couple of times, not completely convinced this is real yet, before shaking her head at herself and getting back to work and lending Nicole a helping hand.

\----------------------------------------------

After having eaten what had eventually turned out to be an amazing breakfast cooked by Nicole, who seemed a little bit surprised she’d made this happen too, they were sat together on the couch playing what was now their 3rd round of _go fish_. Nicole was sat with her back against one arm rest, her legs crossed in front of her, and Waverly was sat mirroring her position on the opposite end of the couch.

Sceptically, Waverly peeked over her cards, squinting at Nicole who was doing the same, before cautiously asking, “have you got any seven’s?”

Nicole eyed her cards for a second before returning to her sceptic stare-off with Waverly, finally answering, “go fish.” She watched as Waverly carefully picked up the last card in the so called ocean and asked, “have you got any queens?”

“Ugh, yes…”

Nicole picked up the two queens Waverly had passed on to her, and knowing she only needed one last card to win the game, she went on, “do you have any three’s?”

“Damnit!” Waverly exclaimed, feeling as defeated as ever as she’d just lost two out of three in a childs card game.

“Aha, I win!” Nicole exclaimed happily, throwing her arms up to emphasise her point of winning.

“Only because you knew that was the last card in the ocean though…”

Acting offended and putting a hand to her heart, she said, “Why, I would never! You’re so mean.”

Throwing her hands up, Waverly said, “you’re right! You’re right, I’m sorry. Can you ever forgive me?”

Pretending to be thinking it over, tapping her chin, Nicole finally answered “we may be able to work something out…”

Waverly sat up then, and crawled over to Nicole. Now straddling her, she bent over and steadied herself by placing one arm on either side of Nicole’s head. Their faces were now mere millimetres apart, and Waverly could feel Nicole’s breath against against her skin, “yeah?”

Nicole’s breath was jagged and nervous as she allowed herself to quickly glance down at Waverly’s lips for only a moment before returning her gaze to meet Waverly’s eyes. Smiling nervously, she finally said, “yeah.”

A devious smirk found its way to Waverly’s face as she locked her eyes on Nicole’s lips, “how about I do this…?” Waverly asked before closing the small gap between them and kissing Nicole with all her might.

Nicole sighed into the kiss and wound her arms around Waverly’s neck, mumbling something like “this is good,” causing Waverly to smile against her lips before pulling back. After taking a moment to catch her breath again, Nicole spoke up, “you are definitely forgiven.”

Waverly laughed and laid her head down on Nicole’s chest, content in the silence being held by two strong arms.

\----------------------------------------------

After a while and a lot of thinking on Waverly’s part, she said, “I can’t believe I’ve only known of your existence for about a week, but already after these past two days I’ve found you’ve become this huge part of my life I can’t imagine living without now…”

Nicole found herself smiling at this, and responded, “I know what you mean… It’s crazy, but I have this feeling that everything is right, and everything is good, when I’m with you. I’ve never had that feeling before…”

Waverly propped herself up then to be able to look at Nicole as she said, “its like all of a sudden everything else just disappears and all I feel is good and right.”

“Exactly!”

Waverly gave Nicole a quick kiss before laying back down, “it scares me, but its also the best I’ve ever felt.”

Nicole dropped a kiss to her hair then, and hugged Waverly to her just a little bit tighter in response.

\----------------------------------------------

The day had quickly gone by, the two not having done anything but looking at each other, talking and playing board games. They’d ordered a pizza a little while ago and was expecting it to arrive any minute, while nearing the end of an intense game of Trivial Pursuit for Kids.

Waverly had nearly all her pieces, only missing one, whereas Nicole was in about the exact opposite position. “I swear to God, this game is unfair, you are so clearly much smarter than me,” Nicole said as she realised there was no turning back and she was definitely losing.

Taking a moment to just look at Nicole, Waverly said “it’s trivial pursuit for kids, Nicole… I’m pretty sure the box said it was suited people between the ages of eight and twelve. I guess I’ve just had more luck with my questions!”

Finally, Nicole smiled again, “I really like how you’re trying to find reasons why I’m losing other than me being not as smart as you, when in fact the problem is really just that you are way smarter than me.”

Just as Waverly was opening her mouth to give some other explanation to why she was winning they both heard a knock on the door, and Nicole got up to go answer it. She opened the door and greeted the delivery guy who handed her the pizza after receiving his payment and tip. As soon as she said thanks and closed the door, Waverly was on her way with money for the food, but soon realised Nicole had already taken care of everything. “Nicole, you didn’t have to do that… You brought over breakfast and you’re my guest,” Waverly said, but Nicole just shrugged and placed the pizza on the living room table.

As they ate, they’d decided to skip the movie and just sit and talk instead.

“So. Do you have any brothers or sisters?” Nicole asked.

“Yes. There’s my older sister, Wynonna, she lives in town, I’m sure you’ll meet her at one point! She’s kinda known for getting into trouble… Then there was my eldest sister, Willa, who died when I was little.”

“Oh,” Nicole said, reaching for Waverly’s hand, “I’m sorry.”

Waverly just waved a hand as to say it’s okay, “don’t be. It was a long time ago, and I don’t really remember her… And now it’s my turn! I never did ask you, but why did you want to be a cop?”

“Ooh that’s a great question!” Nicole answered Excitedly, “and well, I wanted to be a cop because when I was younger, I realised some people don’t have anyone to stand up for them. And I always thought everyone should have a voice.”

Thinking this over for a minute, Waverly said, “isn’t that kinda what lawyers do though..?”

Smiling, as if expecting the response, Nicole simple stated, “well yes. The difference between myself and lawyers is that where they are trying to right a wrong, I’m trying to stop it from ever happening. Basically, I’m trying to keep lawyers from working.”

“That’s a very good answer, officer!”

“I also became a cop because I like to protect people, help people, and remove or put down dangerous situations…”

Waverly looked at Nicole then, “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as kind hearted as you before.”

Nicole shrugged and said, “that’s because there are just assholes living in this town.” Causing Waverly to laugh, “no, but seriously, I’m glad you think so.”

\----------------------------------------------

It was getting late, and they were both feeling pretty tired despite not having done anything all day. Nicole was about to say she should go when Waverly asked, “hey Nicole?”

Raising an eyebrow at her, Nicole answered, “yeah?”

“Will you stay over tonight?”

Nicole was a little taken aback, not expecting Waverly to ask her directly – if at all – to stay over. She smiled, none the less, and happily answered, “I would love to.”

They made their way upstairs to Waverly’s bedroom where Waverly threw an old shirt at Nicole for her to sleep in, while finding another for herself.

As they were climbing into bed, Waverly noted how Nicole was seeming pretty nervous, and she smiled to herself thinking about how the woman who had seemed so confident and sure of herself only hours ago, had suddenly turned into this nervous and unsure mess that stood before her. She therefore grabbed her hand and guided her to sit down at the edge of the bed. She straddled her and kissed her passionately, and Nicole responded immediately, bringing her hands to Waverly’s back.

It lasted only a moment, but it seemed to calm Nicole down which was Waverly’s goal all along. She gently nudged Nicole’s shoulder to get her to lay down, and as she did, Waverly crawled over her and laid down beside her. Nicole turned to face her then, and as she placed an arm over Waverly’s middle, Waverly snuggled closer to her and nuzzled her face in Nicole’s neck.

They laid together for a moment before Nicole just had to ask, “you know before, this morning, you said something and I’ve just been thinking about it for a while now.” Waverly lifted her head a little bit then, “you said you like my voice?” It wasn’t meant to come out as a question, but it did anyway.

Letting out a light laugh and the insecure question slash statement, Waverly nuzzled her face back into Nicole’s neck as she answered, “yeah, I like your voice.”

They were both quiet for a moment, Nicole not entirely sure how to answer that. Luckily, Waverly spoke up before she had to spend more time thinking about it, “and I like your smile, and your laugh is heavenly… Not to mention your face – I really like your face. And your eyes. And really I just like all of you… But maybe mostly your voice. It’s comforting, it makes me feel safe.”

Nicole was kind of glad Waverly couldn’t see her face now because of the dark, because her face and warped into one of pure and true happiness, a face splitting grin spreading across it. “It’s always been like this, you know. You should’ve heard it coming out of a five-year-old Nicole.” 

Waverly laughed then, and Nicole could feel her smile against her neck, causing her own laughter to fill the room with Waverly. Eventually the laughter died down, and Nicole could hear Waverly’s steady breathing. Almost certain Waverly was now fast asleep, she dropped a kiss in Waverly’s hair and whispered out, “I think you’re my favourite person.” Waverly barely caught it in her half-asleep state, but did so right before she fell into a deep sleep with a smile firmly playing on her lips.


	4. I'm Not Going to Break

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I do realize this chapter became more of a filler chapter than anything big and life changing, but hey - that's life for yah!

As Waverly was starting to wake up, she turned around to bury her face in her pillow, and as she did so she felt two strong arms tighten their hold on her. She smiled into her pillow at what seemed to be a reflex from Nicole’s side while blushing furiously into her pillow – very happy Nicole couldn’t see her face right now. 

After a moment, Waverly seemed to have gotten her blushing and smiling back under control, so she decided to lift her face from the pillow to look at the sleeping beauty next to her. Waverly thought Nicole looked gorgeous where she was, peaceful, fully relaxed, not worried about a single thing.

Taking a minute to look at the beautiful girl next to her, a smile spread across Waverly’s face, and she brought a hand up to run through Nicole’s hair. Nicole stirred for a moment before slowly opening her eyes – blinking a few times before being able to keep her eyes open for more than half a second at a time. Once able to do just that, she looked at Waverly for a second, smiled, and shook her head before burying her face back into her pillow to hide a blush of her own.

Waverly laughed then, and said “oh come on, Nicole, let me look at that pretty little face of yours, please?”

When Nicole only shook her buried head, Waverly thought it was time for more serious measures – because if she was up, Nicole was going to be up too. As Nicole was currently lying on her stomach, face buried deep in her pillow, Waverly figured she wouldn’t notice if she simply sat up and climbed on Nicole and straddled her. So naturally, that is exactly what Waverly did.

Nicole, noticing Waverly placing herself on top of her, started laughing while she turned her head to the side so she would be able to talk out into the open, “hey, what are you doing?”

“Shh,” Waverly answered in a whisper, bending down and placing a kiss at the back of Nicole’s neck. She could feel Nicole shiver as her lips came in contact with her skin, and smiled triumphantly to herself as she realised just how much power she seemed to have over the girl beneath her.

Nicole closed her eyes and took a deep breath to steady and keep herself under control, something she felt she failed miserably at as she practically gasped the second time Waverly brought her lips to the back of her neck and shivers ran down her spine.

“Ooh, you like this?” Waverly teased.

Nicole let out a huff and quickly turned around under Waverly, causing the girl on top of her to let out a squeal as she wasn’t prepared for the abrupt movement. Once turned around, Nicole proceeded to sit up, bringing Waverly – who was now sitting on her lap – closer to her. Waverly’s automatic response was bringing her arms around Nicole’s neck, while Nicole’s hands found their way to Waverly’s hips to firmly hold them in place.

The two of them took a moment to just look at one another, a moment during which Waverly tucked a strand of hair behind Nicole’s ear, saying, “my God, you must be the true definition of beauty”.

Nicole leaned in then, passionately kissing Waverly, and although the kiss seemed to last only a second, it said everything Nicole didn’t know how to say with words.

Waverly searched Nicole’s face for any signs that she didn’t want any of this, any signs of regret. When finding none, she all but threw herself at Nicole again, kissing her with every little bit of energy she had. She could feel Nicole’s hand run up and down her back in the most careful of ways, as if afraid a firmer touch could break her. Thinking about this, she couldn’t help the smile that took over her lips – something she soon cursed herself for letting happen when Nicole pulled back.

She was smiling too now, “what?”

Waverly looked down then, shook her head, and said, “oh it’s nothing, it’s just silly really.”

Nicole placed a hand under Waverly’s chin to lift it so their eyes could meet again, but Waverly still avoided looking at her – simply closing her eyes. “Hey, look at me please?” That voice… That voice could make Waverly do anything, so she opened her eyes again and looked at Nicole who was nervously smiling. Nicole carefully cupped her face, “I bet it’s not silly. Anything that makes you smile I want to know because I want to be the reason you smile – I want to know what makes you happy.”

Waverly could feel her eyes start to water, but quickly blinked away the tears. She didn’t understand how anyone could care so much about her – it truly was surreal to her. “Uh, it’s a little bit stupid, maybe even awkward! But really it was just the way you were touching me that made me smile.” Nicole furrowed her brows in confusion then, “you see, when you touch me it’s like you’re taking care of the most precious thing – a thing that could break any second. A thing that needs to be handled in the most careful of ways.”

Nicole interrupted Waverly then, “but that’s because to me you are the most precious thing…”

“And that is so, so, sweet. And honestly, the smallest of touches you give me feels amazing and just out of this world. Every time I need to hold on to something just to make sure I stay grounded and don’t float away. But I’m not going to break. I so much love the way you touch me, but I’m not going to break.”

To emphasise her point, Waverly kissed Nicole then, hard and with power, causing Nicole to let out what sounded very much like a whimper. She continued to explore Waverly’s body like before, only now her touches were firmer and more confident.

After an intense make out session they broke apart, both of their breathing uncontrollable as of yet. “I could easily wake up like this every single day and never get tired of it. I don’t think I could ever get tired of waking up next to you,” Nicole said in-between breaths.

“I know, me too,” Waverly agreed. She then tried to climb off Nicole, only to be held in place by Nicole who was now showing off the best pouty face she could make up – a face Waverly found it impossible to ignore, “hey! No. None of that, put that way away please.”

When Nicole didn’t stop, Waverly tapped Nicole’s now stuck out bottom lip, repeating what she’d just said, “Nicole, I’m serious. I can’t look at that, it’s too much.”

Nicole kept going, and in all desperation Waverly leaned in to kiss Nicole, intending to just tease her and not actually have it escalate from there into another make out session or anything of the kind. This plan did, of course, not work out very well – something Waverly only seemed to realise as she returned to reality and realised she was now shirtless and once again breathing heavily.

She gave Nicole a disapproving look, but all she got in return was a sheepish grin and a shrug. Waverly shook her head as she reached for her shirt again, and as she pulled it over her head she said, “that was cruel.” Nicole still didn’t say anything, a smile still gracing her face, “on the bright side, that pout did just go away…”

Nicole pecked Waverly’s lips one last time, and that’s when Waverly realised she would do anything for this girl. “As much as I do wish this morning would never end, as much as I wish we could just stay right here, in this bed, forever, I did kinda want to do something today if you’d like to spend another day with me? You don’t have to of course, I just think it could be-“

“Hey,” Nicole said laughing, “yes. We’re spending the day together – what’s the plan?”

\----------------------------------------------

They'd spent the day together, going back to the café where they first met, walking around down town and simply enjoying the day and their time together.

They were now stood in Waverly's doorway, trying to say goodbye for now as Nicole had to go into work the following morning. Waverly had her arms placed around Nicole's waist, not yet ready to say goodbye.

"You could just sleep here – I'll get up early with you! I don't mind..." Waverly suggested.

"As lovely as that sounds, and as much as I loved waking up next to you, I do need to get some sleep to be able to stay up all day tomorrow. Can't be staring at you hours into the night and not be rested for work," Nicole answered sadly.

Waverly nodded her head in understanding with a sad smile, still not completely on board, but knowing she had to let go eventually.

Feeling bad about the situation, Nicole gently cupped Waverly's face, running her thumbs along her cheekbones. "Hey," she said when Waverly avoided eye contact, "I'll call you tomorrow, I promise." When Waverly still wouldn't meet her eyes, Nicole bent down and placed a soft kiss to her lips. She could feel Waverly respond immediately, which only made it that much harder to leave.

When they broke apart, Waverly asked again, "you promise you'll call me tomorrow?"

Nicole smiled and firmly nodded, "yes. I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Good," Waverly started, "now give me a kiss I can live on til I hear your voice again."

Not being one to disobey orders, Nicole smiled a devious smile as she bent down, and while kissing Waverly with all her might, she walked Waverly backwards til she hit a wall. She moved her hands to Squeeze Waverly's ass for a second before bringing them to the back of her thighs, easily lifting her up.

Waverly let out a squeal and a moan as she wrapped her legs around Nicole's waist, running her hands trough red locks.

Eventually the need for air became too great and Waverly was forced to pull away, cursing her lungs for not being able to withstand more. She let her forehead fall on Nicole's shoulder, who was still carrying her, until she managed to get her breathing under control and be sure her legs could carry her again.

"You okay?" Nicole asked her, smiling and seeming as proud as ever of what she could do to the girl by simply kissing her.

Lifting her head again, Waverly said, "yeah, sorry."

Nicole shook her head, "please don't be sorry about this."

"No! No, I didn't mean- I'm not- That was some kiss..." Nicole hummed in agreement and Waverly continued, "suppose you'all have to set me back down right about now if you want to drive away tonight."

Nicole's face looked like a question mark, and Waverly looked down, causing Nicole to do the same. "Oh! I'm sorry," Nicole said, still not letting go of Waverly - a bit reluctant to do so...

Waverly felt a smile take over her face, "uhm... Nicole?"

"Shhh, just a minute longer."

Waverly nodded and took the opportunity to lay her head back on Nicole's shoulder and embrace her for a minute more.

\----------------------------------------------

When Nicole woke up to her alarm the next day and Waverly wasn't next to her, her mood dropped to about as low as it could get at 8am. She sighed as she switched on a light and got out of bed, already sure this day was going to be an exhausting one.

\----------------------------------------------

The clock was nearing 11 and Nicole had been written up for front desk duty all week, but already she was bored out of her mind. The only thing she could think about was her gir- Were they girlfriends? She didn't know exactly what they were – she’d have to talk to Waverly about that - but all she could think about was Waverly.

Little did she know, Waverly had slept horribly and woken up cranky and irritated - something very unlike her might I add. Which is why she'd decided to take matters into her own hands, she knew what she had to do.

Just as Nicole was handing over her latest report, out of the corner of her eye she saw someone walk in. She lifted her head, and as soon as she saw Waverly her face was taken over by a huge grin.

"Phew, you're here. I was so sure I was gonna mess up completely and you wouldn't even be here right now..." Waverly said as she sat a cup of coffee down on Nicole's desk.

Nicole shrugged and said, "desk duty - one whole week of it actually!"

"Aww I'm sorry, Nicole..."

Nicole waved her hand then, "nah, it's a rotation thing, this week it's me, next week it'll be someone else! It's okay. Honestly quite dreadful at times, but I'll live." Waverly nodded, and Nicole just now looked down at the cup Waverly had sat in front of her. Nicole snorted, and while laughing she asked, "officer Haughtstuff?"

Waverly rounded the desk while shrugging her shoulders, pulling Nicole’s chair out and placing herself in her lap. Nicole raised her eyebrows in question but didn’t ask or signal for Waverly to get off, “you will not believe how grumpy I was this morning when I woke up and you weren’t there. Hence my coming here… Speaking of, I really hope I didn’t overstep or anything!” Hurrying off Nicole’s lap, she continued in half panic, “I mean I can leave, it’s okay, you can tell me to leave I would totally understand…”

Nicole’s smile only grew, and as it did Waverly seem to realise she was rambling again and stopped. Nicole reached for her and once she caught Waverly’s arm, she tugged on it, silently asking Waverly to take a seat again. “Hey, I don’t mind this at all. You’ve just made my day!” Was said as she pecked her cheek, “and I do think maybe I can believe how you felt this morning because I felt about the same… It just felt so empty without you when I was going to sleep, and waking up and not seeing that gorgeous face of yours was a nightmare.”

“Yes!” Waverly exclaimed, “I slept probably worse tonight than I’ve ever done – all because you weren’t there lying next to me…”

“I know, baby, I’m sorry.”

“No no, it’s okay, I understand… I just wish you were there when I woke up is all.”

Nicole took a minute to think, and the longer she thought about it the more she needed to know. “Hey, Wave? What are we?”

Waverly looked at her like she was crazy just then, “uhh, people...? What are you-“

“No, I mean like us, what are we? This relationship? If it even is a relationship! I mean it depends what you want really, because I would love for this to be a relationship, but if you don’t want that then that’s completely fine because I’d rather have some of you than none of you…”

Waverly raised an eyebrow, “are you done…?”

Nicole let out a small laugh, “sorry, yes.”

“Nicole, I would love to be in a relationship with you.”

In the most hopeful voice, Nicole had to ask, “for real?”

Waverly kissed her then, before pulling back and answering, “for really real.”


	5. When you Sleep

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, I am so, so, sorry about practically abandoning this fic for nearly a month I believe it has been... This chapter is going to be a bit of a short time-waster and filler, but hopefully something better and fuller will be just around the corner! 
> 
> I appreciate all your comments and kudos, they all make my days a little brighter, so thank you all! :)
> 
> Again, I'm sorry, and I will try to get this show on the road with the next bits of this fic coming with smaller gaps and more actual content. (Probably no sex though, sorry guys!)

The week had gone by quicky, with Waverly stopping by the station every day with coffee for Nicole – who would reward her every time with a heart stopping smile and a sweet kiss. She would stay every day until Nedley would walk out of his office, look at the two, and clear his throat – something that would result in Waverly all but jumping off Nicole’s lap – before saying “officer Haught, would you mind seeing miss Earp out? I’m sure she’s gotten all she came for and then some.” Nedley would walk back into his office, a smile playing on his lips, and while Nicole would laugh at the slightly awkward encounter and Waverly’s reaction, Waverly would gently punch her arm and say, “Nicole! That’s your boss, I’m sure you’re not giving the best impression by having me around all the time…” Nicole would simply shrug, pulling Waverly back to her, and say “I’m sure Nedley doesn’t mind having you around – in fact, I think he likes you. And I’m pretty sure he thinks I’m okay too, so I say we’re good!”

Nicole had, as promised, called Waverly Monday night. She’d also called her every night since, because not hearing Waverly’s voice before she went to sleep every night had somehow become a thing that made it impossible for Nicole to fall asleep. Waverly was, of course, not complaining – hell, if it were up to her Nicole would be back in her arms every night! But she could see how that might be too soon. That didn’t stop her, however, from begging every single night for Nicole to come over, which is how they ended up in the same bed come Friday afternoon when Nicole had agreed to come over as soon as she got out of work.

“I have waited this whole entire very long week for this exact moment,” Waverly mumbled out from where her face was buried in the crook of Nicole’s neck.

Laughing, Nicole said, “I know, baby. Me too,” as she kissed the top of Waverly’s head.

They laid in comfortable silence for a while, both happy and content being in the other’s company. Eventually Nicole could feel Waverly’s breaths even out, and when she lifted her head to look at Waverly’s face she saw the tired mess that was her girlfriend, fast asleep and seemingly calm and free of worries. Nicole couldn’t help but smile, and as she wound her arms a little tighter around the other girl she let out a yawn and closed her eyes, feeling just how exhausted she really was after another busy week. It was only a matter of minutes before Nicole was in a deep sleep herself.

\----------------------------------------------

When Nicole woke up a couple of hours later, the smile that graced her face quickly turned into a frown as she turned around and found that Waverly had left. She tried blinking the sleep out of her eyes as she slowly sat up and looked around the room, and sure enough, Waverly was nowhere to be seen.

“Wave?” Nicole yelled out as she climbed out of bed. She stilled for a moment to hear for a response or any sound at all really. It was only when she was about halfway down the stair she heard music coming from the kitchen alongside the sound of pots and pans being moved around.

She couldn’t help the smile that took over her face as she walked towards the kitchen and was met with the sight of Waverly working her way around the kitchen, hips swaying with the music, smile firmly planted on her face, some pasta dish that smelled heavenly on the stove. _This girl will be the death of me,_ Nicole thought as she figured she’d stood in the doorway long enough and made her way over to Waverly who still hadn’t noticed Nicole’s presence.

Waverly felt two strong arms wrap around her waist and jumped slightly before relaxing into Nicole’s hold and sighing happily, “did you sleep okay?”

Nicole pecked her cheek then, and replied, “best nap I ever took.”

“Good,” Waverly answered as she reluctantly moved from Nicole’s embrace to make sure nothing was burning, “I’m glad.”

“Actually,” Nicole started as she moved a little out of the way, “it feels like I slept better and got more energized from that two-hour nap just now, here, with you, than I’ve done all week without you.”

Waverly only hummed in agreement, , so Nicole kept going, “I mean, think between us have been moving pretty quickly… But I-“ Nicole halted for a minute as she saw Waverly freeze up for only a second, but it was enough to have Nicole quickly reassure her and recover. “Not a bad thing, by the way, not at all!” She let out a nervous breath as she saw Waverly’s smile reappear on her face before continuing, “what I mean to say is, I know we’ve not known each other for the longest of times, but it feels like I’ve known you forever… Everything feels so natural, and comfortable, and just good. Everything feels good with you.”

Waverly walked up to Nicole and wrapped her arms around her neck, and standing on her toes she gently pulled on Nicole’s neck to bring her down to her in a sweet kiss, “I know.”

Before Waverly could turn and walk away again, Nicole reached for her arm, “oh no you don’t,” pulled her back to her, and gave her a lingering kiss.

Waverly let out a short laugh when they broke apart, feeling her cheeks warm up a little, before asking in a slightly teasing manner, “now may I go make sure our dinner doesn’t burn into nothing? I mean I’d like a great singing voice as much as the next girl, but I’d also really like it if my dinner didn’t turn all black…”

Nicole flashed her a smile, dimples on full display and unknowingly making Waverly’s knees go weak, before nodding once and walking over to the cupboard. She started taking out a couple of plates, a couple of glasses, some cutlery, figuring the least she could do to help with dinner was set the table.

Waverly shook her head and smiled as she watched Nicole for a minute, wondering how she’d become so lucky, before remembering what she was doing and rushing back over to the stove.

\----------------------------------------------

After having eaten in mostly comfortable silence, occasionally catching each other mid-stare and quickly looking away, the two were now sat on the sofa, watching a movie per Waverly’s request.

They had actually intended to watch the movie, and had spent all of fifteen minutes paying attention before getting lost in each other instead. Well, Nicole had tried – and mostly succeeded – in focusing on the movie. Waverly, on the other hand, had managed to actually pay attention for about half a minute before her eyes drifted off to watch the red head next to her. She told herself it was okay though, because how could anyone pay attention to anything with this gorgeous girl sitting right next to her?

When Nicole caught on, she’d become half-invested in the movie they were watching, and so she simply placed her arm around Waverly and kissed her temple. Waverly, however, had other plans. This movie was not at all of interest to her right now, but Nicole was. Which is why she, in an attempt to gain Nicole’s full attention sat up and straddled her before crashing her lips against Nicole’s.

It took Nicole no more than a second to respond, and once she did, she sighed happily and brought her arms around Waverly, hoping to bring her closer. Waverly caught on, and before Nicole could do or say anything to stop her, she was being pushed down on the couch by Waverly, not once breaking the kiss as Waverly placed herself on top of her.

When they did finally break the kiss they were both out of breath, and Nicole asked while laughing, “not that I’m complaining, but I thought you wanted to watch a movie? Not make out like a couple of teenagers.”

Waverly simply shrugged, “I changed my mind,” before going back to kissing Nicole.

\----------------------------------------------

The couple had eventually slowed down and broken apart, and Waverly had somehow placed herself between the back of the couch and Nicole, propping herself up on her elbow. She was gently tracing the lines of Nicole’s face, watching her eyebrows twitch as she reached them, and her lips turning into a slight smile as she neared them – she was completely mesmerized by this girl lying next to her.

Nicole was staring up at Waverly, not completely able to read her expression at the moment, and decided to ask with a smile, “why are you looking at me like that?”

Waverly smiled back just as bright and answered, “because you’re beautiful,” before shifting and laying her head down on Nicole’s chest.

Nicole wound her arms around her in a tight hold and closed her eyes, wanting this moment to last forever. For the first time in a long time she was completely happy.

Not much later, Nicole could hear the familiar sound of Waverly’s breaths evening out and she knew the girl was almost asleep. Waverly’s relaxed face was just as beautiful as earlier when she’d looked at peace and asleep, and as she tucked a strand of hair away from Waverly’s face, she couldn’t help but admire her and say, “you’re so beautiful when you sleep.”

Waiting a second and not receiving a response she continued, “you’re always beautiful, but when you sleep you seem so at peace, completely relaxed, completely comfortable, completely angelic really…”

Waverly shifted then, tightening her hold on Nicole and mumbling, “it’s just because you’re here, usually when I sleep I look like shit.”

Nicole let out a laugh as she ran a hand through Waverly’s hair, closing her own eyes and letting sleep carry her away once again, feeling completely at ease with Waverly in her arms – everything was good with Waverly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed that short chapter, if not, come yell at me on Tumblr: ALittleLampPost! Or, you know, to be nice...


	6. In Sickness and in Health

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well would you look at that, that was a short wait - yay! Hopefully the next one won't take too long to come up either.   
> Also, this is a bit longer than usual to make up for the last short one! 
> 
> Thank you all for your comments and kudos, they make me very happy :*

A weekend of bliss was over too soon, and Nicole was stood hugging Waverly goodbye, but Waverly was a little more than reluctant to let her go, begging Nicole to stay.

Nicole, however, was having none of it. As much as she wanted to stay – and boy did she want to stay – she knew she couldn’t, and they had actually made a deal Nicole would leave come Sunday night. “Wave, come one, baby. You know that if I stay I won’t get enough rest because I’ll spend too much time looking at your beautiful face,” she cupped Waverly’s face and squished her cheeks then for emphasis.

Waverly didn’t say anything, she just pouted and Nicole was sure she’d change her mind right then unless she got rid of that pout right now. “Hey, stop that, you know I can’t stand that face.”

Shaking her head and keeping her pout exactly as it was, Waverly buried her face in the crook of Nicole’s neck and breathed in deep. She had to admit she was having a tougher time than she would’ve though letting Nicole go again after three so amazing days. She’d gotten used to having Nicole around and she loved it, so naturally she didn’t want the girl to leave.

“It’s just a little less than twenty-four hours until I see you again, we can do less than twenty-four hours apart, right?” Nicole kissed the top of Waverly head and tried to back out of the hug only to have Waverly tighten her hold on her.

“Nope, not letting you go. It looks like you will just have to stay right here!”

Nicole let out a laugh then, and lifted Waverly’s head enough to be able to give her a sweet kiss. “I know, I don’t want to leave either-“

“Then don’t! I don’t mind…” Waverly interrupted.

Sighing, Nicole responded, “I don’t want to leave, but! We agreed I would. You were even the one who said it, Wave, and I’ve got work in the morning…”

“I take it back, I didn’t actually mean it, I don’t think you should leave.”

Nicole didn’t really know what to say anymore, so she just sighed. It was breaking her heart to have to leave Waverly like this, but she knew it was for the best. She really did need to get a good night’s sleep before work the next day and she knew for sure that wouldn’t happen with Waverly asleep and beautiful looking in her arms. She was already feeling pretty tired, and she was close to giving in. If Waverly kept this up she was sure to get her way in a matter of minutes.

Pulling back a little, Waverly looked up at her with unshed tears in her eyes. She looped her arms around Nicole’s neck to bring her down for a kiss.

Nicole pulled back smiling, and Waverly couldn’t keep it up anymore, a small smile broke out on her lips as well. “Will you call me when you get home?” Nicole just nodded, “can I come by the station tomorrow like usual?” Nicole’s smile grew wider and again, she nodded. Waverly’s smile broke into a grin, “will you kiss me now?” Nicole took a hold of Waverly’s face with both hands and brought her face to her in a crushing kiss. She deepened it when Waverly gasped into her mouth, and trailed her hands back to run through dark waves. When Nicole finally pulled away, Waverly was stood panting. “Woah.”

Nicole winked at her, “I know.”

\----------------------------------------------

The following morning, Waverly woke up quite possibly feeling worse than when she went to bed the night before. She was, however, determined not to let that ruin her day. Knowing she would be seeing Nicole soon enough, she quickly got out of bed and started her day, and sooner than she knew it she was headed over to the coffee shop downtown.

\----------------------------------------------

As Waverly walked into the station she threw out her regular “hello’s” and “how are you’s”, making her way to the front desk where her smile faltered for only a second when she reached it but didn’t see Nicole anywhere. In Nicole’s usual seat was a replacement, some guy who seemed to think he was too good for the job as he seemed to be doing anything but actual work. Just as Waverly was about to walk up to him and ask if he knew where she could find Nicole, the phone ringed, and he held up a finger as he answered the call.

She waited for about fifteen minutes before growing impatient, and having to be at Shorty’s in a relatively short time from now, she began digging through her purse in search for some paper and a pen. She quickly realised she’d never find it in the mess that was her purse, so she sighed and just rounded the desk to grab some. She wrote a short message for Nicole and told the guy on the phone to hand it to her when he saw her.

_Hey!_

_You weren’t here when I was :( I’ve got to get to Shorty’s, but come find me after work?_

_Love, Waverly_

_P.S._

_I hope the coffee is still warm, sorry!_

\----------------------------------------------

The day had gone by quickly. It was now nearing midnight, and she had yet to hear anything from Nicole. As she made her way upstairs to her room she considered calling Nicole, there was still a chance she’d be awake after all. Plus, her phone would be on silent if she was sleeping, right? So she wouldn’t bother her either way, not really.

With that in mind she decided to go for it and quickly pulled up Nicole’s number and called her. The call was, however, eventually forwarded to voicemail, so she just hung up. She figured Nicole had probably just had a stressful day and was asleep by now – she couldn’t blame her honestly. Can’t possibly be too easy being a police officer every day.

Shrugging at no one in particular, Waverly went on to get ready for bed herself, thinking tomorrow would be better.

\----------------------------------------------

The following day went about as good as the day before – Nicole was nowhere to be found at the station and the same jerk as before had taken over Nicole’s usual spot, once again spending his time talking with God knows who on the phone.

Waverly had, once again, written a note and left the station to head over to Shorty’s for her shift, and she had again been a little bit disappointed when Nicole hadn’t showed up to see her.

She tried calling her again that night, but there was still no answer, and honestly she was getting a little bit anxious now. She’d not heard from her in two days, had she done something? Was Nicole avoiding her, or what? Was she hurt? _Oh my God what if she’s hurt?!_ After slightly panicking over the thought for a second, she pushed it right out of her mind, because Nicole was okay, and she would be at the station tomorrow. She had to be okay…

\----------------------------------------------

Wednesday rolled around, and Waverly woke up feeling more determined than the past two days – she would talk to Nicole today. She’d spend half the night thinking about what she could’ve possibly done to make this happen, to make Nicole ignore her, but she’d been coming up empty. Eventually she’d concluded with the fact that she would just have to actually talk to Nicole before she could figure out what more to do.

Making her way through the station, she was alert and ready. If that same lazy guy would be sitting there this morning, he was in for a surprise and the wrath of Waverly Earp. On the way over she’d thought out exactly what she wanted to say to him, and suffice to say they were not exactly nice things.

Rounding the corner to the front desk, however, she was met with the pleasant sight of a kind looking woman sitting behind Nicole’s usual desk. Although disappointed it wasn’t Nicole herself, and slightly taken aback it wasn’t the jerk from the days before, she was beyond relieved when the woman spoke up and actually initiated contact.

“Hello! How can I help you today?” She said.

“Hi! Uhm, I’m looking for Nicole?” Waverly hesitantly answered.

The woman looked at her for a minute in question before speaking up, a smile playing on her lips, “are you asking me if you’re looking for Nicole, or are you telling me that’s what you’re doing?”

Waverly let out a small laugh, “Telling you. I’m looking for Nicole, you wouldn’t happen to know where I could find her?”

“Nicole…?”

“Oh! Sorry, officer Haught! I’m looking for officer Haught.”

The woman seemed to be wracking her brain trying to find the image of this officer Haught Waverly was speaking off, and not really having time for this right now because she was growing increasingly frustrated with the whole situation, Wavelry spoke up again, “actually, could I just speak with the Sherriff for a moment? Thanks.”

Waverly waited patiently as the woman started explaining how she would, unfortunately, have to come back at a later time because the Sherriff was very busy right now… Well, she was patient for about thirty seconds before she simply rounded the front desk and waltzed right on into Nedley’s office.

Waverly halted quite abruptly when she was through the door and was looking down at a Nedley eating his lunch. “Busy my butt…” She mumbled under her breath before speaking up louder, “have you seen Nicole?”

Nedley was a little bit taken aback himself, and it therefore took him a minute to respond, “Nicole?”

Waverly was growing increasingly frustrated now, was it really that hard to just answer the question? “Yes, Nicole. You know, officer Haught? She works for you, and I haven’t seen her in what would now be closing in on three days, so where is she? She won’t respond to any of my texts or calls, she’s never here when I am – which is the same time every day, so if she wanted to see me she would have been here. Which also means if she wanted to avoid me she would know how to. But if she actually is avoiding me I really can’t for the life of me figure out why? I mean I didn’t do anything, did I? I don’t think I did… Well anyway, I really need to talk to her, so I was hoping you could maybe tell me where she is so that could happen? Or do you even know where she is, I’m sorry, I shouldn-“

“Waverly,” Nedley started, “calm down, will you? I haven’t seen Nicole all week, I-“

Interrupting him before he finished speaking, Waverly suddenly got very worried – he hadn’t seen her all week? What did that even mean? “What do you mean you haven’t seen her all week?! Did something happen, is she okay – oh my God, she’s okay, right?”

“I’m sure she’s okay, she’s ju-“

“I have to go,” Waverly announced, once again interrupting Nedley before he finished speaking, and storming out of his office.

“Just sick. She’s sick is what I was going to say if that girl would just calm down for a second, Jesus…” Nedley mumbled to himself after Waverly had left his office, before going back to eating his lunch – hopefully in peace.

\----------------------------------------------

Pulling into a parking space outside Nicole’s building she could see Nicole’s car parked there, which made her feel a little bit better because that meant she would most likely be here.

She climbed out of her car and was met with Lincoln bumping into her feet, snuggling up to her, “hey buddy!” She exclaimed as she bent down to pet him, “how are you today, Lincoln, you good?” The cat purred happily in response, so Waverly kept petting him for a moment, figuring it wouldn’t matter spending a couple minutes with Lincoln, “you’re such a handsome little fellow, aren’t you? How’s your mommy doing, is she home? Let’s go see if she’ll talk to me, shall we?” And with that, she stood back up and started walking, Lincoln following closely behind.

Standing outside of Nicole’s door, she was growing more nervous by the minute. This was her girlfriend, she shouldn’t be this nervous, should she? Well, maybe a little bit was okay because she hadn’t talked to her in almost three days and she had no idea why, that was a good reason to be a little bit nervous, she thought. She knocked on the door just as Lincoln made his way inside the cat door, and leaned against the door to hear for any sounds at all.

Eventually she heard Nicole on the other side of the door, talking with Lincoln – or so she assumed. She decided to knock again, “Nicole, it’s me! Come on, I know you’re there…”

She waited another minute before yelling through the door again, “I’m not going to go away, you know.”

After a few seconds she heard a muffled “its open,” and she was flooded with relief. They were talking, this was good, this was major improvement.

She confidently turned the handle and stepped inside, “if this is because of anything I did…”

Waverly stopped mid-sentence as soon as she had stepped inside. The curtains were drawn, and although it was the afternoon the entire apartment was practically pitch black. She felt Lincoln cup up to her again, bumping into her legs, and even with her eyes adjusting to the dark she was having a really hard time seeing anything or anyone else.

“Nicole?” Waverly called out hesitantly. Her attention was drawn towards the couch at the sound of sniffles and coughing.

“Morning, sunshine,” Nicole responded from her spot on the couch, voice raspy and groggy. She was wrapped up in a blanket she had pulled up under her chin as she was laid on her side. The coffee table was littered with used tissues and empty mugs previously filled with tea and hot chocolate. Honestly, for someone always seeming so put together – she was a wreck.

“It’s the afternoon,” Waverly chuckled as she made her way over to the couch where she knelt down by Nicole’s head.

“Wonderful,” Nicole responded sarcastically, pulling the blanket over her head.

Waverly reached out to pull it back down, and placed a cold hand on Nicole’s burning forehead. Nicole leaned into the touch, closed her eyes, and sighed happily at the contact.

“So this is why you haven’t been at the station or Shorty’s?” Waverly asked, “because you’ve been sick?”

Nicole opened her eyes again, “oh shoot. I’m sorry, Wave, I never meant to bail.” She sniffled a few times and lifted her head from Waverly’s hand as she reached behind her for some paper so she could blow her nose.

Waverly ran her fingers through red hair as Nicole sighed and laid her head back down on the pillow and said, “no its fine, I just thought…” _You realised you were sick of me and were avoiding me._

“Thought what?” Nicole asked as she slowly pushed herself to sit up with her back against the armrest of the couch, coughing and feeling as if her head was about to explode in the process.

Shaking her head, Waverly answered, “nothing, it doesn’t matter. I was just worried about you.” She frowned as she took a closer look at Nicole now that her eyes had finally adjusted completely to the dark, her eyes were puffy, her nose was red, her hair was a mess and she looked down right miserable. “Jesus, Nicole, you look horrible.”

Nicole just looked at Waverly for a second, “wow, okay… Thank you, Waverly, for your always oh-so-heart-warming compliments.”

Laughing, Waverly apologised, “I’m sorry. Why are you in here and not in bed?”

“It’s too far away,” she mumbled and wrapped the blanket tighter around herself.

Waverly shook her head and smiled before walking over to the window to draw the curtains open, which she did in one swift motion. She turned back when she heard Nicole groan at the light and saw her lie back down and turn her back to the windows to avoid major exposure to it. Waverly walked back over to the couch and took a seat at her feet, “when was the last time you showered?”

Nicole turned her head slightly to look at Waverly then, “what exactly are you trying to tell me?”

Waverly just laughed and walked off then. Nicole closed her eyes again, happy when the darkness seemed to lull the pounding in her head just a little bit. Waverly was back, however, in less than five minutes and she showed no mercy as she pulled the blanket off the red head who turned to glare at her for a minute before turning away and curling herself up in a ball on the couch again – she did not have the energy to fight anything that was happening right now.

“Come on, officer, up an at ‘em! The bath is ready; all you have to do is climb in.” She didn’t receive any kind of response at first so she tried again. “It’ll make you feel better,” she said, tossing the blanket to the end of the couch and taking a hold of Nicole’s wrist pulling her up and over her bedroom that was connected to a bathroom.

Nicole glared at her for a second before sighing and grabbing the hem of her shirt, pulling it over her head as she walked towards the bath Waverly had gotten ready for her.

Walking away, Waverly only turned her head to call out over her shoulder “while you get cleaned up, I’ll get started on a chicken noodle soup like no other. You’ll love it!”

Nicole smiled and shook her head to herself. She had to admit though, even just being in the now very steamed bathroom was already feeling great, and as she climbed in she sighed at the feeling of the warm water starting to warm her through. She leaned her head back and tried to fully relax while trying to get warmed up a bit.

When the water was getting cold, Nicole opened her eyes again, taking a minute to adjust to the bright lights, before pulling the plug and getting out of the bath. She took a deep breath and she had to admit, Waverly might have been right, she did feel a lot better already. She could even breathe normally without coughing – if only for a minute – which she definitely appreciated being able to do. She wrapped a towel around herself and walked out to the bedroom to find a glass of water and some painkillers sitting on her nightstand, and she smiled as she walked over and swallowed the pills along with the glass of water. She pulled on some sweats and a t-shirt before walking out to the kitchen where something was smelling insanely good.

It was only when her stomach rumbled that Waverly noticed her standing in the doorway. She smiled and walked over to her, kissing a cheek she asked, “feeling better?”

“Much.” She went to the living room to pick up the mugs and paper she was sure she’d strewn about, only find it was all cleaned up.

Walking back into the kitchen, she stepped up behind Waverly and wrapped her arms around her waist, “and thank you for cleaning up my mess.”

“Of course!” Waverly said, turning around in her arms smiling as wide as ever. “Now come on, there’s soup and tea!”

“Okay, so this is without a doubt the best chicken noodle soup I have ever eaten. And I’ve eaten a lot of soup,” Nicole said as she had another taste and closed her eyes, smiling and wanting to savour the moment.

Waverly grinned then, very happy they were still very okay and she hadn’t messed up yet, “I’m glad you like it.”

\----------------------------------------------

The two had moved to Nicole’s bed after they’d eaten, figuring that’s where Nicole should be, not the couch.

“What are we even watching?” Nicole asked as she laid her head down on Waverly’s shoulder, closing her eyes trying to relax, “it seems terrible.”

“I thought you weren’t even paying attention, I thought you were half asleep to be honest…”

“Well,” Nicole started, “wasn’t paying attention, and I was trying to sleep, however with this feeling that my head could explode any second, I don’t think that’s an option anymore.”

Waverly paused her show then, shut the laptop and sat it on the table next to her, and patted her lap, “alright, head please?”

“Uhm… What?” Nicole asked with a sceptic look on her face.

Rolling her eyes, Waverly patted her lap again, “come on, don’t over think it and make it weird, trust me.”

When Nicole still didn’t seem convinced, Waverly continued, “honestly, I was right about the bath and the soup helped, didn’t it?” She got a nod in response, “okay, so lie down please.”

Nicole sighed, but did as she was told. She shifted slightly and turned her back to Waverly before lowering herself down so her head landed in Waverly’s lap. “Now what?”

Waverly laughed, “patience.” She said as she placed her hands on either side of Nicole’s head, pressing the tips of her fingers against her temples and rotating them in circles.

Nicole let out a satisfied sight and closed her eyes, feeling more relaxed by the second. _Waverly definitely wasn’t wrong about this one,_ she thought to herself as she finally felt she could relax fully.

Smiling at the reaction, Waverly let her fingers glide back and through red hair, scratching her scalp lightly.

“This is amazing,” Nicole whispered after a while.

“Yeah, it’s one of the few things I remember dad used to do when I was sick or when I had trouble sleeping.”

Nicole opened her eyes when she felt Waverly’s hands still, looking up at her and looking for the right words to say. “Do you want to tell me about him? And your sister too…”

A little taken aback, it took Waverly a minute to form any words and the one she did form was, “what?”

Nicole shrugged, “just if you want to.” She closed her eyes again, “I mean as long as you keep doing that head thing.”

When Waverly didn’t move to continue, Nicole opened an eye and looked up at her before she reached behind her head to grab her hands and place them at her temples again.

Waverly chuckled, but continued running her fingers through still damp hair again, “honestly I don’t remember much about either of them… Just things like this with dad, and him taking my side when Willa and Wynonna would gang up on me and not let me play with them.” She smiled absentmindedly at the memories, and Nicole opened an eye to get a look at her. “And Willa, the only thing I really remember is this really horrible thing she did… When I was four, she caught be going through my dad’s drawer, and she promised she wouldn’t tell. She wouldn’t tell, IF I walked across this one beam in the barn. And I didn’t want her to tell, so obviously I did it, but looking back on it now, that was so, so, stupid… I could’ve broken my neck, and she was old enough to know that.”

Nicole looked up at Waverly then, not really sure what she could say – if anything at all. She ended up not saying anything at all, turning to lie on her side and burying her face in Waverly’s stomach.

Laughing, she asked, “what are you doing?”

“I’m cuddling with your stomach, isn’t it obvious?” Nicole answered.

Waverly could only laugh at what was going on, until she happened to glance at the clock and seeing what time it was. “Oh, it’s getting pretty late, I should probably let you sleep.”

She went to get out of bed, but quickly felt a hand grab her wrist, “or you could stay?”

Nicole wasn’t flirting or putting on a suggestive tone, she was simply asking if Waverly would stay with her even though she was sick – perhaps _because_ she was sick. Either way, Waverly slowly nodded and lifted her legs back onto the bed, scooting back up towards the headboard.

Nicole lifted the covers, sliding her legs underneath, with Waverly following quickly after. They both sank down into the bed, Nicole curling up and latching onto Waverly, who brought her arms around Nicole – holding her close.

Waverly turned off the lights, and they both let out a content sigh. Looking down on Nicole as her eyes adjusted to the dark, she could see her eyes were closed but her eyebrows were still furrowed. Waverly brought a hand up then, continuing her miracle head rub thing, smiling as Nicole’s face seemed to turn from a frown to being completely relaxed.

Eventually Waverly closed her own eyes, feeling herself grow more tired by the minute. In no time she fell asleep to the sound of Nicole’s steady breathing, the hint of a smile present on her face as she finally felt fully relaxed and at ease after a couple more stressful nights.


	7. I Love You

Nicole woke to the feeling of someone trailing their fingers through her hair and lightly massaging her scalp, and of course not wanting the sensation to stop she pretended to be asleep for a little while longer.

Waverly had woken up about half an hour ago, feeling more rested and better than ever. She turned around to face Nicole and felt her instinctively tighten her grip on her in her sleep, Waverly's face broke out in a huge smile - a smile that hadn't left her face since that moment. She'd been looking at Nicole for a while now, just taking in her peaceful demeanor as she slept, that was until she realised it could be considered slightly weird if she kept this up. _Then again, what's another minute, right? It's not like she or anyone is awake to see me staring and admiring anyway, is it?_ She thought to herself as she brought a hand up to run through soft red hair.

A few moments later she felt Nicole stir, and her hand stilled immediately afraid she'd been caught mid act.

"No," Nicole whined from where her face was buried in a pillow, "don't stop, please?"

Waverly's smile grew impossibly wider just then, and she resumed her motions. "Good morning, beautiful," she said and leaned closer to kiss her cheek, "how are you feeling today?"

Nicole smiled then and slowly opened her eyes, "for the first time since Sunday, I don't feel like I'm dying." When Waverly only laughed as a response she continued, "all thanks to you actually. You and that amazing soup of yours seemed to have done it."

"No, no this is all you, I was just here for support and what I now realise where not very encouraging words..." She looked down shyly for a moment.

"Hey," Nicole started to bring Waverly's attention back, "check this out." She took a deep breath through her nose, something that for once didn't result in her starting to cough like crazy. Pointing to her nose, she said "this. This is all thanks of you."

Waverly let out a laugh as she buried her face in the crook of Nicole's neck, mumbling out a "shut up."

Nicole laughed and held on to Waverly as she rolled on to her back bringing Waverly with her on top. Waverly let out a short squeal as she was being pulled with Nicole, and glared at her for a moment before her serious face fell and her laugher filled the room with Nicole who simply hugged her to her.

When their laughter finally died down a little, Waverly propped herself up Nicole who then just took a moment to look at her, thinking the way the sun creeping in through the cracks of her curtains made Waverly look even more beautiful than always. Naturally she felt a need to tell Waverly this, and as much as she wanted to kiss her like crazy right now, she knew that it probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do. She didn’t actually want Waverly to get sick too, so instead she sighed happily and brought a hand up to tuck a piece of hair behind Waverly’s hair, “you’re so beautiful.”

Waverly smiled shyly, “says you, the most gorgeous creature I have ever seen.”

She leaned down to place a sweet kiss to Nicole’s lips, who effectively stopped her. Nicole had put her hand over Waverly’s mouth and was looking at her with an apologetic look as Waverly raised an eyebrow in question, “I’m kinda sick, remember...? I just don’t want you to get sick too because of me.”

Waverly, although thinking it was sweet of Nicole, didn’t really care at this point. It had been half a week and then some since she last kissed her girlfriend and sick or not, Waverly was determined to make this happen.

“Well, I guess I’ll just have to stay away from your mouth then, won’t I?” Was said as her genuinely sweet smile was replaced with the biggest smirk. She dipped her head and started attacking Nicole’s neck, she worked her way across her collarbones and up her neck, where she took her sweet time. She reached Nicole’s weak spot it seemed when she heard Nicole let out a low moan, she lightly bit down before soothing over the mark with her tongue and continuing upwards. She was peppering her jaw with quick kisses, making her way to the corner of Nicole’s mouth where she lingered only a moment longer as she placed a kiss there.

When she pulled back to look at Nicole, Nicole was looking at her with wide dark eyes filled with lust. Waverly gave Nicole’s cheek a last quick peck before moving to climb off of Nicole, only to be dragged back by Nicole a moment later. She raised her eyebrows and Nicole looked at her for a second more before cupping both her cheeks and bringing her face to her in a crushing kiss. Waverly gasped into her mouth, taken a little by surprise but definitely not complaining, and Nicole took the opportunity to deepen the kiss.

Hands were wandering off everywhere, clothes were coming off – well, Waverly’s clothes were coming off -  and it was only when Nicole was positive her lungs would explode if she didn’t get some air right that second that she reluctantly broke the kiss.

A little out of breath, Waverly cheekily asked, “I thought you didn’t want me to get sick?”

Nicole laughed and jokily said, “well there’s no need to be a jerk about it…”

Waverly made a serious face then, before answering “you’re right, I’m sorry.” She smiled a little again before continuing, “that was amazing though.”

“I know.”

“Plus,” Waverly said, starting to climb off of Nicole for a second time, “there is always the chance I won’t get sick even if you’re sick. Maybe you’re past that whole infecting people phase?”

Nicole shrugged and laid on her side as she watched Waverly get out of bed, “hey, where are you going? Are you just gonna make me all hot and bothered and then take off?”

Waverly picked up her sweater off the floor and walked over to Nicole’s side of the bed, sitting down and placing a quick kiss to her lips. “I’m sorry, but I do actually sort of have to go to work…” When Nicole pouted at her, she said “I know, I don’t want to leave either, but I was supposed to be there an hour ago, so I’m already pretty late…”

Nicole must have looked like a question mark then, because Waverly laughed and said “it’s almost one, Nicole, we slept for, well, pretty much for ever.”

Her eyes went wide, “oh my gosh, I don’t think I’ve ever slept in that late.” She made to get out of bed herself, but was held back by Waverly.

“Nope, you’re staying right here. You may feel better, but that doesn’t mean you’re 100% well yet, and I am not risking you infecting half this town with whatever it is you’ve got.”

Nicole huffed, but laid back down none the less. “Oh, so you’re more worried about the health of the citizens of Purgatory than your girlfriend dying of boredom? That’s super comforting…”

“Hey,” Waverly lightly slapped Nicole’s upper arm, “that’s not what I said. And for the record, there is nobody in this town I care about more than you.” She let that hang in the air for a second before saying, “well, maybe Lincoln, but I suppose he doesn’t count, does he?”

It was now Nicole’s turn to lightly slap Waverly’s arm, and laughing she answered “that’s not very nice, Lincoln is a cat. A cat should not be more important than a person. …should it?”

Waverly simply shrugged as she stood up, “I don’t know. But honest to God, or whatever’s up there, you are more important to me than anyone else in this town.”

Not really knowing what to say, she didn’t say anything. She watched intently as Waverly stood up and walked over to the door, stopping and turning around as reached the threshold, catching Nicole staring. “Wow, Nicole, way to be subtle about it.”

Nicole gave her a sheepish grin then, weakly offering up a “sorry?”

Waverly dismissed the poor apology, and said, “whatever, pervert. I’ve got to go, but me being gone does NOT mean you are free to walk around, go outside or be in much activity, got it?”

The stern look Waverly was giving her was slightly intimidating, so Nicole just nodded her agreement and smiled, “got it.”

“Good! And if you’re extra good, I might let you go outside tomorrow – might.”

Nicole laughed then, “just get outta here, the sooner you leave the sooner I’ll see you again.”

Waverly shook her head as she walked out of the room and towards the door. As she opened the door, she called back to Nicole, “goodbye, I love you!” Before walking out of the door and towards her car.

It was only when she closed her car door and turned on the engine she realised what she’d just said, she’d just told Nicole she loves her and then walked away without thinking about it. It just naturally left her and she didn’t think twice before letting it slip, it simply happened. She started slightly panicking and worrying, wondering if maybe it was too soon – was it too soon? She’d thought about it for a while, but she didn’t want to scare Nicole with all her feelings all the time, so she was thinking she would wait until a reasonable time had passed before she would say anything, like a normal person. What had just happened did not fit well with that plan, and she knew she had to get to Shorty’s so she couldn’t exactly go back now. Or could she? _No,_ she thought to herself, _no, it’s okay. It’s better to get it out in the open. I just told her how I feel and that’s totally okay. Not a big deal at all…_ Taking a deep breath, she pulled out of the parking lot and started her short drive over to Shorty’s, hoping she hadn’t freaked Nicole out too much.

\----------------------------------------------

Nicole had momentarily frozen up when Waverly had told her she loved her. She was sure she hadn’t meant to say it, so she was a bit unsure how she should react. She definitely felt the same way, she’d known for a while now really, but she hadn’t wanted to say it yet in fear it would be too soon. _But Waverly just said it, so I can say it back, I_ need _to say it back, I want her to know._

And with that thought, she got out of bed and started getting dressed. If she was doing this, she was _really_ doing it, and she had a few things in mind for just how she wanted to do this.

\----------------------------------------------

Waverly had spent her time at work at Shorty’s trying to figure out how to explain to Nicole what had happened, she had tried to come up with some excuse and at least a hundred different apologies she could give her.

Her hours spent at work had been filled with too many worries and not enough attention, resulting in more than a few orders getting mixed up and a few not so happy costumers. When she finally finished her shift, she was more than happy to get out of there and finally get some time to seriously think about where she went from there.

Little did she know, that Nicole had spent the entire day running around town sniffling, trying to get everything she needed to surprise Waverly after work. She needed to get some flowers, she needed to find a restaurant they could go to because she really wanted to take Waverly out and just spoil her like nobody had. Which is why when Waverly walked out of Shorty’s she stopped dead in her tracks, more than a little surprised, at the sight of Nicole leaning against her truck – flowers in hand and a big smile on her face.

“Hey!” She said happily when Waverly walked out of Shorty’s, continuing to speak as Waverly walked towards her, “I know, I know, I’m not supposed to be out of bed, but I really needed to see you.”

Waverly came to a stop when she reached Nicole and just looked at her in question. Nicole figured maybe she should try doing a better job at explaining, “I mean, I hope you’re not mad or anything, you kinda left before I got a chance to say anything, and I have like a lot to say.” They stood in silence for a bit, Waverly waiting for Nicole to continue, and Nicole letting the nerves get the best of her for a moment, “oh!” she said as she held out the bouquet of flowers for Waverly to take, “these are for you – and before you say anything, I know they don’t measure up to you really, but they were the prettiest I could find that were closest to matching you…”

Waverly looked down at the bouquet in shock for a moment before taking it from Nicole’s hand, it really was a very beautiful bouquet of roses, lilies, and alstroemeria. ”Nicole,” she started as she lifted her eyes to meet Nicole’s, “these are really beautiful, I don’t know what to say - thank you! You didn’t have to do this though, you don’t have to-“

“I know,” Nicole stopped her, “but I wanted to.”

Waverly was grinning from ear to ear, she couldn’t believe Nicole would do this, even after she let the words slip earlier at what she was so sure was too soon for Nicole. “So...”

Nicole snapped out of whatever staring moment she’d been having, blinking a couple of times before saying “right! Sorry. I uhh, I went ahead and got us a table at this place right around the corner, nothing super fancy, but I’ve heard they’ve got burgers to die for. Figured you might be up for some food when you finished work… We don’t have to go though, I mean I know you might be tired after a long day, and I don’t want to keep you out if you don’t want to – you might not even be hungry! I don’t know why I did that without checking with you first, that was maybe dumb…” She finished her rant and took a deep breath.

Waverly was just standing there smiling, she stood up on her toes and pecked Nicole’s lips before saying, “I would love to have dinner with you.” She then took a hold of Nicole’s hand, “lead the way, I am starving!”

Nicole laughed and started walking, not once forgetting how great Waverly’s hand seemed to fit in hers, like they were made for each other. She kept smiling the whole way, stealing quick glances at Waverly and seeing her with the same big smile on her face.

\----------------------------------------------

They made it to the restaurant in a few minutes, and they were seated in a booth in the back corner by a window with a nice view of the town. They had both ordered and were sat waiting for their food.

“So,” Waverly eventually spoke up, “any reason for this lovely evening?”

“Actually,” Nicole drew out, “yes.” She took a deep breath and reached for Waverly’s hand across the table. She opened her mouth a couple of times and closing it again, maybe she should have thought through what she wanted to say a little longer before actually doing this? It didn’t matter though, not really, because she knew what she wanted to say, and she was just going to say it. “You know how this morning, as you left, you kinda threw out an I love you before you walked out. And well, I know you probably didn’t mean to do that, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately and when you said that I just realised I really want you to know that I love you.” She laughed a little, “I really do… It may seem silly or too soon to say that, but that is how I really feel, and why can’t I say that, right? You don’t have to say it back, I just wanted you to know.” She stopped for a moment, but before Waverly could say anything she added, “and I wanted to spoil you a little bit tonight as a thank you for last night, because you were amazing and I’m pretty sure I would have died if you hadn’t come over. And of course because you truly deserve this and so much more… Waverly, you deserve the world, and I’m gonna give it to you. If you’ll let me of course…” She ended on a bit of a shy note, not daring to meet Waverly’s eyes just yet.

Waverly was a little bit shocked, she didn’t fully understand how Nicole could be so open with her, just like that, in a way that seemed so effortless as well. There were unshed tears in her eyes, and she was sure her face was taken over by a face splitting grin as she further processed what Nicole had just told her. _She loves me,_ she thought, _she really loves me. She’s not scared because of how I said it and she loves me back._

Waverly tugged gently on the hand in hers, trying to have Nicole meet her eyes. She was unsuccessful, however, but she could understand why. Which is why instead of insisting, she simply spoke up anyway, needing Nicole to know she felt the same way. “It may have slipped out this morning, but I really did mean it. I mean, I guess I’ve known for a while actually… When you didn’t answer any of my calls or texts this week and you weren’t at work, Nicole I was so scared. I didn’t know what was going on and I thought I was losing you – or even worse that you were seriously hurt – and that scared me half to death. I love you. I really do, and I am so sure of it, more sure of it than I’ve perhaps ever been before about anything. I know how I feel about you and I may not have meant to say it but I did mean it when I said it. Even if I do wish it had happened in a smoother way.”

Nicole was looking at her again now, smiling widely, “really?”

Returning Nicole’s wide smile, Waverly simply answered with a “yes.”

Nicole nodded Waverly over, “come here,” and put her arm around Waverly’s waist to hold her closer once she sat down next to her.

Waverly laid her head down on Nicole’s shoulder and took her hand in her own, “I like this,” she said. “Us, I like us.”

Nicole dropped a kiss to the top of her head and hummed in agreement.

Their food soon arrived, and Nicole was right, this place had some really good burgers. They spent most of their time eating in a comfortable silence, occasionally catching each other staring for a minute but would just smile of plant a kiss on the other’s cheek before going back to eating. Everything felt so natural and good between them that they didn’t mind the silence at all.

\----------------------------------------------

When they’d finished their food, Nicole had paid without much of an argument with Waverly much to her surprise, she may have prepared quite a few good arguments to win the fight, but even better was never having it. They had walked back to Waverly’s truck where they were now standing, saying their goodbyes.

“I love you,” Waverly said as she sank back down on her feet after giving Nicole a quick kiss, her arms remaining around her neck.

Nicole still had her arms wrapped around Waverly’s waist, not yet ready to let go, “I love you too.”

Waverly pulled Nicole down to her again, but instead of bending down, she tightened her hold on Waverly and gently lifted her up to kiss her. She could feel Waverly smiling against her lips and couldn’t help the small smile that graced her own lips.

When she was sat back down a moment later Waverly laughed innocently, “I’m sorry I’m so short…”

Nicole shrugged, “I like it.”

Standing on her tows to give Nicole one last kiss, she said, “okay, I really should get home… And you really should get back in bed! You weren’t even supposed to be here in the first place.”

“What can I say – I just had to tell you I love you.” Nicole answered. Then, as if on cue, she sniffled for a short moment before shutting her eyes and sneezing hard.

Waverly laughed and said, “I rest my case,” which earned her a glare from Nicole.

“Yeah yeah, bed, I know…”

“Mhm,” Waverly said and climbed into her truck, “I will see you tomorrow?”

“Definitely,” Nicole answered immediately, “drive safe, okay?”

Waverly smiled and said “Always do,” before backing up and driving home.

Nicole looked after her for a moment, slowly shaking her head at herself, _its official - I've got it_ _bad_ _. This girl has turned me to complete mush._


	8. Do Dogs Think in Barks?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, new chapter! 
> 
> Thank you all so, so much for all the incredible feedback I got on the last chapter I posted - both comments and kudos! And all the other chapters of course. I know I always say this, but it truly does make me really really happy too know you all like these chapters and and to hear your feedback - both good and bad. But maybe mostly good... Thank you all so much for reading and commenting and kudoing (is that a word? Probably not, but it is now), I appreciate you all so much! 
> 
> Alright, that's enough cheesiness, I'll let you get on with the chapter now...

When Nicole woke up the next morning to the sound of her alarm she was feeling much better, and like she wouldn’t be exhausted from standing up straight for five minutes, so she decided she should probably get back to work. She got up and went to take a shower, the memories of last night flooding back. Waverly had actually told her she loved her, and she had said it right back, and the smile and relief that took over Waverly’s face made it all worth it.

She walked out of the shower and got dressed, and as she was towel drying her hair she looked over at her phone. She was tempted to text Waverly, but considering it was only 7:30, it was unlikely Waverly would be awake at such a time. _Then again_ she thought to herself _, her phone should be on silent, so it shouldn’t wake her up, right?_ She decided it probably wouldn’t, and either way it was a risk she was willing to take, and sent her a text before getting back to getting ready.

\----------------------------------------------

On the other side of town, Waverly was laying on her couch watching TV, having been more or less completely unable to sleep the whole night. She’d drifted off a couple of times, but it was never more than an hour, and she always woke up feeling just as tired as she was before. _Who knew sleeping with someone once would make you addicted…_ She had several times wanted to call Nicole just so she could hear her voice, but she thought she seemed pretty tired when they said their goodbyes last night – as wonderful as it had been – and had concluded she didn’t want to disturb her sleeping.

Instead, she had eventually given up and moved downstairs where she had turned the TV on and flopped down on the couch, hoping the distraction would make her sleepy. Sadly, it hadn’t worked like she wanted to, and she was now laid out on the couch at 7:30 feeling more frustrated than ever.

She was just about to frustratingly roll over once more when she saw her phone light up on the table before her. She reached out and grabbed it, and seeing it was a text from Nicole she immediately opened it.

Nicole: Good morning, beautiful. I am feeling fine and dandy and I’m sure that’s mostly because of you, so thank you. I’m headed to work in a bit, and I hope I’ll see you there later?

Waverly smiled to herself and wrote a reply,

Waverly: I am so glad you’re feeling better – no need to thank me, but you’re always welcome :) I will definitely stop by now that I know you’ll be there. Might come a little earlier than our usual time though, that okay?

Nicole: That’s perfect.

With a smile now on her face and a temporary spike of energy, Waverly immediately got up and started to get ready – after all, who really needs sleep?

\----------------------------------------------

A couple of hours later, Nicole was at the station typing up some report Nedley had asked for, happy she was finally back and feeling good.

Only one paragraph into the report, Nicole could faintly hear the familiar sounds of Waverly coming towards her, greeting the other officers in the building on her way over. Nicole fought back a smile of her own, not wanting to seem crazy even before Waverly had made it over. When Waverly finally did round the corner however, she couldn’t fight the smile as it grew wider no matter how hard she tried.

Easily matching her smile, Waverly walked up to her and rounded her desk before giving Nicole a sound kiss and saying, “good morning, officer.”

Nicole pulled Waverly down to her lap, wrapping her arms around her, before answering, “a very good morning indeed!”

Waverly laid her head down on Nicole’s shoulder, closed her eyes, and sighed contently.

“Oh, and what were you doing up so early by the way, you’re usually never up at seven thirty,” Nicole said after a moment.

Waverly shrugged, “I didn’t sleep very well is all.”

Nicole raised her eyebrows in question, but quickly realised she wouldn’t get any answers when Waverly’s closed eyes couldn’t exactly see her raised eyebrows. “What does that mean though?” Waverly shrugged again, so Nicole rephrased her question, “Wave, how much exactly have you slept would you say?”

Taking a moment to think about it, Waverly eventually opened her eyes again to look at Nicole, “I guess about two hours? Or maybe it was three actually… I’m not entirely sure.”

“Two hours,” Nicole repeated to herself more than anyone else, “baby, you need to sleep more than two hours, you’ve got work tonight, right?”

Waverly nodded, “well yeah, obviously I would have liked to sleep more than two hours, it was just kinda hard… I mean, you weren’t there…”

Smiling, Nicole brought a hand up to cup Waverly’s cheek, stroking her thumb along her cheekbone, “I know, I sleep so much better when you’re there. It’s like all of a sudden I don’t remember how to sleep, eat, live or even breathe without you…”

Giving Nicole’s lips a quick kiss, Waverly said “I know exactly how you feel,” before laying her head back down on Nicole’s shoulder and closing her eyes again. She was feeling the exhaustion wash over her at this point, _that coffee did not help at all._

Nicole shifted back towards the computer, figuring she could let Waverly relax for a little bit and type around her instead so she would actually be finishing up this report. When she looked down at Waverly a few moments later, she could hear her breaths evening out, and she knew she had fallen asleep. She couldn’t bring herself to wake her, knowing she needed the sleep she could get, so she simply dropped a kiss in her hair before mumbling an “I love you.”

\----------------------------------------------

It was about two hours later, and Nicole had finished up her report and some other work she’d been asked to do. In those two hours, the people that had walked into the room had just looked at them and smiled, not bothering them with anything. Except Nedley, who had seemed sceptical at first, but seeing that Nicole was actually getting quite a bit of work done, decided to let it go. Although he did, of course, drop off some more work for Nicole – she really did have quite a bit to catch up on after being gone for almost a whole week.

She looked down when she felt Waverly stir, and sure enough the girl was finally waking up again. “Hey, sleepyhead,” she whispered as Waverly opened her eyes, seeming a little bit lost for a moment.

Waverly’s eyes widened at the realisation she had fallen asleep in Nicole’s lap, at her workplace, while she worked. “Oh my god, Nicole I am so, so, sorry! I didn’t mean to fall asleep, that was totally uncalled for, I’m so sorry.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it, nobody has tried to chase you away, and I certainly didn’t mind.”

Waverly kissed her cheek then, still not making to move off of Nicole’s lap, “you’re the best.”

“Oh, I know.”

Waverly raised an eyebrown then, but decided she’d let Nicole have it. She had actually let her sleep in her lap, so she really probably shouldn’t be teasing her at this point.

“What time is it?” Waverly asked.

“Uhh,” Nicole turned to look at the clock behind her and looked back at Waverly smiling, “lunch time. Let’s get some food!” She moved her arms under Waverly’s legs and her back and lifted her up to carry her bridal style. A shriek left Waverly’s mouth, and Nicole couldn’t help herself, “really? I mean I do this almost on a daily basis, don’t you think you should be accustomed to it by now?”

Waverly glared at her, “shut up.”

\----------------------------------------------

They’d decided to just walk across the street to a diner for lunch, and as they were sat waiting for their food, Waverly took a hold of Nicole’s hand without a word.

Nicole just looked at their entwined hands and smiled to herself, before bringing their hands to her lips and kissing the back of Waverly’s. Waverly gave her a wide smile as a response before leaning in and giving her a sweet lingering kiss. When they broke apart, Nicole was smiling just as wide, “what was that for?”

Waverly shrugged, “just because.”

Their food arrived shortly after, and they ate while talking about everything and nothing. Mostly dogs apparently…

“Hey,” Waverly said to get Nicole’s full attention, “I’ve been wondering something for a while now…”

Nicole raised her eyebrows and gestured for Waverly to continue.

“Well, okay. So I mean, do you think dogs think in barks? I mean what else would they think in, right?”

Nicole just looked at her for a moment, thinking Waverly was messing with her. When Waverly kept looking back, looking as if she was genuinely wondering, Nicole let out a short laugh before answering. “I don’t really think ‘barking’ is an actual language amongst canines – and it’s definitely not a language amongst humans.  I mean they learn commands and stuff in English, so I suppose they could possibly use English as their language?”

Waverly thought it over for a moment before shaking her head, “I’m not so sure, I kinda think they do think in barks – they are dogs after all…”

Nicole just looked at her in disbelief for a second, “no, but wave, they can’t think in barks, that doesn’t make sense. It makes more sense if they think in symbols and images and stull, very visualised, like babies and deaf people, right?”

Again, Waverly took a moment to think before pulling a very serious face and firmly shaking her head no. “Nope, I still stand by my belief that dogs think in barks.” She shrugged her shoulders then, “sorry.”

Nicole narrowed her eyes at the girl and leaned in closer, “listen to me, you little hardheaded piece of-“

Nicole was cut off as her phone went off on the table in front of them. Nicole was completely taken aback, not at all expecting it, and looking a little bit lost as she glanced over at her phone for a moment. She turned back to Waverly who had the biggest smirk ever on her face, signalling for Nicole to answer the phone.

“One second,” Nicole quickly said to Waverly before picking up.

While Nicole was on the phone, Waverly took a hold of her hand again and kept eating the fries that were still on Nicole’s plate that just happened to be very conveniently placed in front of her – so therefore it was not her fault if they were all gone by the time Nicole got off the phone.

Nicole glared at her for only a moment before her face switched from fake angry and real happy to disappointed.

“…yes, of course. Yeah, no I’ll be right there. I’ll see you in fifteen.”

Waverly looked at Nicole as she hung up, waiting for Nicole to elaborate on the conversation that just happened, and from what she could hear, Nicole had to leave.

Sighing, Nicole started, “Waverly I’m so sorry, but I have to go.” She watched Waverly’s face fall for only a second before it was back to the usual smile, and the sight slightly broke her heart. “There was apparently some violent outbreak downtown, and Sherriff said he needed me…”

Waverly just waved a hand in front of her, “no no, it’s okay, you go take care of that, don’t worry.”

Nicole gave her a quick kiss and she got up and made to leave, abruptly stopping and turning back for a second, “oh, I almost forgot! I meant to ask, I know you work late tonight and stuff, but I was thinking if you wanted to maybe after work you’d want to come over? Spend the night?”

There was a hint of hope in Nicole’s voice and Waverly knew she would never be able to say no to that. “I would love to come over tonight. I’ll be there as soon as Shorty lets me go! Now get your cute little butt out of here and over to whatever it was going on downtown, I’ll see you later.”

Nicole nodded and made to leave again, only stop once again turn back only to give Waverly a quick peck on the cheek and a “love you,” before all but running out of the diner and back to the station, not giving Waverly the opportunity to say it back before she was gone.

\----------------------------------------------

The day had gone by quicker than expected for the both of them, Nicole having sorted out the spectacle downtown, and Waverly having cleaned up a bit before heading over to Shorty’s eventually for her shift.

It was now nearing midnight and Waverly was supposed to get off work at just about now. That was, until Shorty asked if she could be so kind and work a couple extra hours tonight because the bar was packed and he didn’t want to have to chase all his costumers away. As much as Waverly just wanted to leave and crawl up in Nicole’s arms and never move until Monday, she could see Shorty’s dilemma and said yes when he asked.

She took a quick five minutes outside to call Nicole and let her know.

\----------------------------------------------

Nicole reached for her phone when she heard it ring, “hello?”

“Nicole, hey,” Waverly said from the other side of the line.

By pure reflex, Nicole sat up straighter and cleared her throat before asking “hey, how’s work?” She heard a sigh leave Waverly and she immediately knew. “You’re gonna be a little late, aren’t you?”

There was a hint of amusement in Nicole’s voice, and it definitely helped put Waverly at ease. “Uhh… Yes. I’m sorry, it’s just a busy night, and Shorty didn’t want to have to chase all the guys out and I kind of said yes to staying a bit later…”

Nicole laughed then, “it’s okay, Waverly, I’ll leave the door open so you can just let yourself in whenever you get out of there, alright?”

Waverly was kind of taken by surprise. She had expected Nicole to more or less tell her she would be going to bed and that she’d see Waverly tomorrow, not that she’d still be waiting… “You know you don’t have to stay up, right?”

“Yep! And I’m not going to, I’m gonna go to bed in just a second because I am beat. So I will most likely be asleep when you get here, sorry.”

“But you still want me to come?”

Nicole laughed again, _that sound,_ Waverly thought, “yes! Yes, I still want you to come – baby, I’d rather you bang my door down at three in the morning than you not being here at all.”

“Huh,” was all Waverly could say for a short moment. She was really not expecting that, and now there were tears of happiness brimming in her eyes and she didn’t really know what to say. “I will be there as soon as I can then!”

“Good,” Nicole confirmed before letting out a big yawn.

It was Waverly’s turn to laugh as she said, “go to bed, sweetie, I’ll see you in a few hours. I love you.”

She received a mumbled “g’night, Wave” in return, and happily went back to work for another couple of hours.

\----------------------------------------------

It was around 2:30 when Waverly was able to leave Shorty’s and at this point she could really feel the lack of sleep from the night before. She was so ready for bed that you wouldn’t believe it, and she was even more ready to get a hopefully good night’s sleep with Nicole by her side.

As she reached Nicole’s apartment, she tried the door, and right enough – it had been left open. She slipped inside, trying to be quiet and not wanting to wake up Nicole, locking the door behind her.

She made her way to Nicole’s bedroom in the dark, once again not wanting to wake Nicole by turning on loads of bright lights around the place. She made it there with only minor damage of walking into a chair at one point, but no real harm done. She went straight for the bathroom that was joined to the bedroom, where she carefully closed the door and turned on the light. She removed her sweater and jeans and grabbed one of Nicole’s tank tops that was in sight and available, before switching off the lights again and crawling into bed under the covers.

As soon as she did, Nicole turned around to face her, placing an arm over Waverly’s waist and a kiss to her forehead. Her voice was full of sleep as she asked, “you okay?”

Waverly smiled and snuggled up closer to Nicole before sighing happily and answering, “I’m perfect.”


	9. Ghosts from the Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goooood evening everyone! Or morning... Or whatever time it is wherever you happen to find yourself reading this. Basically I wrote this instead of an essay on group processes and socially constructed realities, so please excuse me if there are accidental undertones or mentions of predjudice, deindividuation, pretend prisons, apartheid, or the fact that the reality we think exists doesn't actually exist at all. Forgive my professors, they know not what they do.
> 
> Also, I'm sorry for abandoning you guys and this fic for nearly 2 months, I've missed you all!

Nicole woke up the next morning, feeling better than she had all week, finally one hundred percent over the cold she’d been trying to fight. Like it was an added bonus, when she turned over and opened her eyes, she was met with Waverly’s sleeping form sprawled out on the bed and she couldn’t help the fond smile that found its way to her face. She glanced at the clock and saw it was 12:30, and her eyes widened as she realised she’d never slept this late in what she was pretty sure would be her entire life. Yet, she couldn’t find it in her to be frustrated that she’d more or less wasted half the day sleeping, not when all her senses were flooded with all things Waverly.

As if on cue, Waverly stirred slightly and stretched out, reaching her arms above her head briefly, before turning to lie on her side facing Nicole. She tried to blink the sleep out of her eyes for a moment before giving up and settling on opening one eyes for the time being. She was met with Nicole looking at her fondly, and she simply closed her eye again before speaking up, “Is there something on my face, Officer?”

Nicole let out a laugh before pulling Waverly closer to her, “nope, not a damn thing, you’re just very aesthetically pleasing in the morning.”

“Har har…” Waverly lazily answered, “you should stop that.”

“Stop what? The staring or the complimenting? Because let me tell you right now, I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to do either of those things.”

Waverly decided to let it go, for now, deciding that arguing about anything – no matter how meaningless – before her mind had even started was never a good idea. Especially not if she wanted to have a chance at winning.

They laid in a comfortable silence for a while, before Waverly softly spoke up again, “I could do this forever…” She tensed up for only a second before relaxing again when she realised she’d said that out loud. She certainly hadn’t meant to, and even thought it was the absolute truth, it was a little bit too soon to explore that territory.

Nicole, however, observant as she was, noticed Waverly’s momentarily tense up, and pushed herself up on her elbow so she was looking down at Waverly. With slightly furrowed brows and a soft, yet on the verge of nervous, voice asked, “do what forever, lay in bed..?” She tried to half joke about it, but she was sure that part had gone unnoticed when Waverly opened both of her eyes completely and sat up cross legged next to Nicole.

“Do this forever,” she motioned between the two of them. “I know we’ve not actually been together for very long, but we’ve always been very up front about everything and I just… The first time we kissed, I instantly knew I didn’t need to ever kiss anyone else if I had you. And the first time I spent the night, when I slept in your arms, I felt safer than I have my entire life… I just knew that this is what I wanted – that _you_ were what I wanted. Now… Now I just know that I want this to be forever. I know that sounds crazy, and I’m not saying I want anything to happen right now, because I don’t. I’m just saying that someday, I could see this being permanent. And while that scares me half to death, it also makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside…”

When Waverly stopped for a second, Nicole was about to say something, “Wave…”

“And even though I feel like I’ve known you forever, I still feel like there’s so much more about you, and I want to know everything, the good, the bad, the ugly – everything. I want to know all of you. So. Like I said, I’m not saying right now, but someday.” Waverly let out a shaky breath when she finished, and gave off a shy smile.

Nicole reached for Waverly then, who complied and laid back down, snuggling up close to Nicole. “I think I really like that plan,” she whispered in Waverly’s ear before giving her a quick but sound kiss, “yep, I definitely like that plan.”

\----------------------------------------------

Morning had quickly turned to evening, the two women having spent practically the entire day in bed doing nothing in particular, happy to just be with the other. Up until around thirty minutes ago that is, when Nicole’s stomach rumbled what Waverly swore was “loud enough to wake the entire building”, leading them to order some food so they wouldn’t actually go an entire day without eating anything.

Nicole moved to get up and out of bed, mumbling something about not wanting to open to door without pants on, only to be held back my Waverly. “Nooo, don’t leave, you’re my own personal furnace, if you leave I might freeze to death,” she gasped for effect before adding, “or even worse, my eyeballs might freeze and then what will I do if I’m never able to see this beautiful face of yours?” She placed both hands on each of Nicole’s cheeks and squished her face up a little bit, “I mean look at you, you’re such a cutiepie!” Lastly, turning completely serious and a little strict, she said, “I need my eyeballs to not freeze, Nicole.”

Nicole just laughed and leaned forward to peck Waverly’s lips, “I honestly don’t even think it’s physically possible for your eyeballs to freeze up completely, Waverly…”

“Oh, but it is! I read this article one time, about how extreme cold can make your cornea’s freeze up or whatever, it’s totally true!”

“Huh,” Nicole said, “who’d a thunk it…”

Smiling mischievously, Waverly leaned in closer to Nicole’s face until there were mere millimetres apart, “either way, I’m pretty sure whoever comes to deliver our food wouldn’t mind the lack of clothing…”

Nicole’s breath hitched, and she tried talking, but whatever she was trying to say came out in stutters and completely incoherent nonsense. Waverly considered her mission accomplished and let out a laugh before smiling widely, kissing Nicole’s cheek and laying back down beside her.

Nicole blinked a couple of times, trying to regain some composure, before all but jumping on Waverly and kissing her like her life depended on it.

It was heated and messy, and Waverly was certainly not complaining. She reached for Nicole’s top and was ready to get rid of it before the doorbell rung and brought them out of their own little bubble. They were both stunned for a moment, before Waverly broke out in laughter over the ridiculousness of the whole situation.

Nicole, who was currently hoovering above Waverly, let her forehead fall to Waverly’s shoulder before she laughed with Waverly at this whole stupid situation. She opened her mouth to speak just as the bell rang once again, so she climbed off Waverly and made for the door. She briefly pointed back at Waverly as she walked out of the room, “this is your fault!”

“Oh shush, you were into it!” Waverly yelled back. She got up and walked over to Nicole’s closet, grabbing the first pair of sweats she could find, before joining Nicole in the living room where the food was just placed on the table.

Nicole walked over to Waverly, wrapping her arms around her to embrace her, “I was gonna be all mad and everything, because that was really awkward, but God you look really good in my clothes…”

“You look really good in no clothes,” Waverly shot back and her, and Nicole pulled back with raised eyebrows. Waverly lightly slapped her arm then, “hey, don’t give me that look, it’s not my fault you look like that! Jeesh…” She broke free from Nicole’s embrace and walked over to the couch where she sat down cross legged, grabbing a box of food ready to dig in, leaving Nicole smiling and lightly shaking her head.

\----------------------------------------------

“Hey, I don’t really know much about baby Nicole or your life before purgatory, do I?” Nicole visibly tensed up at the question, and Waverly was quick to notice and try and save the situation, “not that you have to tell me about that of course. I don’t want you to talk about something you’re not comfortable with.”

Nicole shook her head, “no, it’s okay, I want you to know. There’s just not a whole lot worth mentioning is all!” She let out a shaky breath and a nervous laugh.

Waverly reached for her head and intertwined their fingers, giving Nicole a small smile as she said, “it’s okay, we can talk about something else.”

Again, Nicole shook her head. She took a deep breath and braced herself for whatever was about to happen, “my mom left me and my dad when I was nine, and though neither of us took it super well, I probably took it better than my dad. I was super into basketball at the time, so I spent all my time trying to get better at that, and doing schoolwork, trying to be the best at both of those. Dad, on the other hand, kinda got stuck in this darkness… I worked even harder, thinking if I could just make him proud, make him see that I was doing good, maybe he would find hope and something light to hold onto, you know? I mean I understand that a 20-year marriage isn’t exactly easy to just let go of, but it wasn’t everything either. I mean, I was still there. And I needed him - I needed him to be there for me, but he just left. He just gave up. I needed him then, and I still need him, but he just opted out of it, he just killed himself and left me with nothing!”

Nicole was full on crying now, so Waverly wrapped her arms around here and tried to calm her down but not really knowing what to say. She rubbed small circles on Nicole’s back, talking sweetly for a few minutes until Nicole regained some composure.

“Sorry,” Nicole said, her voice sounding raw and broken, and it completely shattered Waverly’s heart to hear her apologise for something that definitely wasn’t her fault.

“Hey,” Waverly started, reaching to wipe away some of the tears on Nicole’s face, “you don’t need to apologise to me, it’s completely okay.”

Nicole smiled weakly and sighed heavily. She thought for a moment that she was done talking for a bit, but decided it was probably better to get it all out. “I uhm… Is it okay if I keep talking for a little bit…?”

Waverly was a little sad that Nicole felt she had to ask permission to talk about her past, but she could understand it, so she simply smiled and gave a small nod of encouragement.

“Well after he died, I spent a lot of time thinking it was my fault, that I made it happen somehow… I soon started having panic attacks, and I started seeing a psychologist. At first I was just angry with everything, and I was convinced it wouldn’t work at all. Surprisingly enough, a couple of years and a lot of yelling later, the panic attacks had been reduced from daily to weekly to monthly, to eventually barely happening at all. I have no idea how she did it, but that psychologist lady sure did know what she was doing, and I appreciate her like crazy. I kind of spend the years following everything going to school, trying to get good grades, goal changed from pro basketball player to something like a police officer, and voila!” She let out a small laugh at the end, “oh, and a lot of my time was spent avoiding getting close to anyone, I figured it was safer that way. Maybe it was, I don’t really know… But it all worked out in the end I suppose!”

“Nicole, I’m so sorry…” It was the only thing Waverly could think to say at the moment, and even though she knew it was a dumb thing to say, she just felt like she had to apologise.

Nicole laughed then, “Waverly, what on earth have you got to be sorry about?”

Waverly shrugged, “I don’t know… I’m sorry you had to go through that. You are the nicest, most kind and caring person I have ever met, and honestly? You have every reason to be the complete opposite of those things, yet here you are… Probably the most loving person in the whole world.”

Nicole smiled before leaning in and firmly kissing Waverly. When they broke apart, Waverly was still cupping Nicole’s cheeks, caressing her cheekbones with her thumb, “I love you.”

Nicole pecked her lips again, “I love you, Waverly Earp.”

Waverly smiled in response, but something was on her mind, “can I ask you something…?” She carefully asked Nicole. When Nicole nodded for her to go ahead, she tried to carefully word her question, but figured it was probably better to just ask, “do you still have them? The panic attacks I mean, do you still get them?”

Nicole avoided eye contact then, “sometimes…”

Waverly lifted Nicole’s chin to meet her eyes, smiling reassuringly, “it’s okay, I just wanted to know. You can’t exactly help it, it just happens, it’s completely okay.”

Nicole just smiled in response, a genuine, dimples on full display, smile. She was happy Waverly was in her life, and that she’d let herself get close to her. Waverly was quite possibly the best thing that had ever happened to her, and she was determined to never let go, and stay by her side until Waverly personally asked her to back off. She was truly happy, and content with Waverly, not to mention she felt so much lighter after having talked about her past and told Waverly about the possibility of an occasional panic attack – that Waverly seemed completely okay with much to Nicole’s surprise. Everything was good.

They continued talking for a bit, the TV playing in the background until they both agreed maybe they should head to bed to avoid sleeping in as late as they had that day. As much as they both loved spending all day in bed together, Waverly did easily get a little bit antsy…

\----------------------------------------------

A few blissful weeks passed, and it was a Tuesday morning when Waverly received a phone call from a certain red-head – or so she thought.

“Hey babe,” Waverly answered the phone, walking out of a coffee shop downtown.

“Waverly?” A seemingly unfamiliar voice on the other end of the phone answered.

Waverly lifted the phone from her ear to check and see that she hadn’t misread the name on the screen and it was, in fact, her girlfriend calling her. Uncertain, she asked, “uhm... Who is this?”

“Oh, sorry, this is Nedley, from the police station.”

“Nedley?” She asked again, and not even a second later, panic flooded her, “why are you calling from Nicole’s phone? Where is she, what’s happening, is she okay, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know what exactly is happening, but I think she needs you… Can you come down to the station?”

“Yes,” Waverly said right away, “I’ll be there in five.” She quickly hung up, threw away the cup of coffee she was holding, and made for the station.

\----------------------------------------------

The second she walked through the door, Nedley was there, dragging her through the station before she even had a chance to say hey.

“It started when we were checking out a crime scene over by the south side, at first she just completely spaced out, and by the time we were packing up and getting ready to head back here she was breathing frantically and still not speaking…”

“Oh no,” Waverly whispered more to herself than Nedley. She was pretty sure she knew exactly what was going on.

Nedley, luckily, didn’t seem to pick up on Waverly’s whisper, so he kept going as they stopped outside of an interrogation room, “I tried asking if she needed to take the day, telling her it was completely okay, but she insisted she was fine. When we got back here though she just seemed completely out of it-“

“She’s having a panic attack,” Waverly interrupted. “Now as much as I love hearing your voice, Sheriff Nedley, can you please lead me to my girlfriend?”

Nedley pointed at the door, “just go right on in.” Waverly reached for the handle, but Nedley stopped her for a moment, “thank you for coming down here, Waverly, she’s really lucky to have you.”

Waverly briefly smiled at him before opening the door and slipping inside.

The room was relatively dark, so Waverly pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight to find Nicole was sat in the corner of the room, breathing frantically with her knees pulled up tightly to her chest. She was sobbing, covering her ears, and her eyes were shut so tightly is must have hurt. She looked completely terrified, and the sight broke Waverly’s heart. She took a deep breath and walked over to Nicole, settling on her knees in front of Nicole.

“Nicole? Baby?” Waverly tried to get a reaction from the other woman, a seemingly impossible task when she was covering her eyes and ears. Waverly was determined to figure it out though, and she knew that touching Nicole was a very bad idea when she had no idea no one else was even in the room. So, she tried again, louder for Nicole to hear her, and she was pleasantly surprised to see Nicole still for a moment and open her eyes.

Waverly gave her a small smile and raised her hand, reaching for one of Nicole’s own. She glanced from Nicole’s eyes to the hands that were on her ears, raising her eyebrows slightly as to ask if it was okay for Waverly to take a hold of them. She was completely still until Nicole gave the smallest of nods before closing her eyes again, leading Waverly to carefully place her own hand on top of Nicole’s carefully lifting it away from her ear.

“Hi,” Waverly softly spoke, “not doing so great, huh?” _What the hell kind of a dumb thing is that to say, she’s clearly not okay,_ Waverly asked herself. “Is it okay if I touch you?” She received another nod, so she scooted closer and removed both of Nicole’s hands away from her ears before holding them in her own. “Will you open your eyes, please?” Immediately Nicole shook her head, “can you tell me why not?” Waverly asked.

Nicole didn’t know what to say. She didn’t really know what was going on herself, she just knew she had trouble breathing and it hurt, and her thoughts were going crazy and she was pretty sure she was about to pass out from the lack of oxygen in her lungs. She mustered up the little energy she had left and said, “the light … too bright.”

Waverly looked at her for a moment before realising she was talking about the little light coming from her phone. She reached for it and turned it off, taking a moment to let her eyes adjust to the darkness of the room. “It’s gone. Now do you think you can open your eyes for me...?”

Nicole seemed unsure for a moment, so Waverly let go of one of Nicole’s hands and brought it up to her face, caressing her cheek. Nicole leaned in to the touch and tried to take a deep breath, but that was easier said than done. Waverly tried again, “please?”

A moment later Nicole opened her eyes, and despite the dark Waverly had no trouble at all seeing the fear in them. She could see that Nicole wanted to close them again, wanted to shut off everything, and she noticed her breathing picking up again.

“I need you to try to take a little bit longer breaths, okay? I can’t have you passing out on me, okay, sweetie? I need you to stay with me.”

Nicole nodded frantically, and she never broke eye contact with Waverly, scared that if she did Waverly would disappear. She tried to take a breath again, but ended up coughing and crying even harder, frustrated that she couldn’t make it stop.

“Can we try something?” Waverly suddenly asked her. Nicole nodded in response, and Waverly kept going, “Name five things you can see right now.” Nicole looked at her for a moment like she was crazy, could she not see or hear that talking wasn’t exactly idea for her right now? “I know you can do it. Five things you can see, go.” Waverly repeated.

Nicole’s eyes quickly darted around the room, making their way back to Waverly between every flicker, being sure she didn’t go anywhere. A couple of minutes later, she spoke up, “table, chair, phone…” She took a break, “mirror…” She thought for a moment and looked back at Waverly, “you.”

Waverly nodded, “four things you can touch.”

Nicole places a hand on the floor, “floor,” she moved stretched out a leg, “table, wall,” she looked around her before placing a hand on Waverly’s cheek, “you.”

Waverly smiled, “Three things you can hear.”

“Nedley,” she said and smiled a small smile. And it was true, Nedley was currently outside, yelling at some poor guy for having dented one of their cars. “Me breathing, and you.” She tugged on Waverly’s arm then, and gestured for her to sit next to her.

Waverly did as she was told, and once in place, Nicole placed her head on Waverly’s shoulder. “Okay, we’re almost done. Two things you can smell.”

Nicole let out what sounded like a small laugh then, and answered “sweat.”

Waverly let out a laugh at that and carefully nudged Nicole, urging her to keep going.

“And coffee…?” She turned her head to look at Waverly who simply shrugged and gave her an innocent smile.

“And lastly, 1 thing you can taste.”

Nicole sat up a little bit then, grabbed Waverly’s face, and crashed their lips together. “You,” she said when they broke apart.

Waverly was a little bit stunned, but was quick to recover, “well that worked out better than I thought it would…”

Nicole smiled at her, “you just did that so I would kiss you, didn’t you?”

Lauging, Waverly answered, “yes, that is exactly why I did that, I just really needed you to kiss me right now.”

Nicole laid her head back down on Waverly’s shoulder, “hey, I’m breathing kinda normally now.”

Kissing the top of her head, Waverly said, “you’re welcome.”

It took Nicole a minute, but when she realised what Waverly had just done, she sat up stunned and raised her eyebrows in question?

Waverly shrugged, “you’re not the only one who was in therapy I guess.” Nicole furrowed her brow and was ready to ask questions, but Waverly was quick to wave a hand in front of her hand as to dismiss it, “some other time. One thing at a time is okay.”

Nicole didn’t want to pry, so she settled back at Waverly’s side, and they sat in relative silence for a few minutes before Nicole spoke up again, “thank you for coming down here, Wave.”

“Any time, pumpkin.”

Nicole scooted away a little then to look Waverly in the face with a very serious expression, “was that a hair joke?”

“What? Nonono, nooo, absolutely not. It was simply a term of endearment.”

“No it wasn’t,” Nicole deadpanned.

“No, it wasn’t,” Waverly sighed, “but it was a nice try, right?” Nicole just laughed in response, and eventually they were both sat on the floor in a dark room laughing.

When the laughter did die down though, Nicole brushed a strand of hair from Waverly’s face, “God, I love you so much.”

“I love you.”

“You know you can’t ever leave now, right?”

“I won’t if you don’t.”

Nicole just smiled, “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright everyone, this is it for now, BUT. Do not fret, my lovelies, for I have half an idea in mind for a new fic. Granted it will most likely not be wayhaught, feel very free to stick around to give it a chance. Even if you don’t, I very much appreciate you and your support through this fic. 
> 
> As always, I can be found on good old Tumblr at alittlelamppost.tumblr.com, so feel free to yell at me over there!
> 
> Well, till next time then,  
> Namaste, Bitches! (• ε •)


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